Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rising Cain
by PokeSpeBanette
Summary: Two boys are shoved (literally) into a world only inhabited by pokemon. With the help of a one-armed Combusken, they explore this new world and discover things about each other they never knew. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon fanfic. Formerly Set Fire To The Rain. DISCONTINUED
1. Prologue

Renny: Hi peeps! I'll keep this chapter/authors note short since this is meant to be a prologue.

Red: Another Mystery Dungeon thing?

Renny: The other one's discontinued.

Red: Oh.

Renny: Yeah, I had no idea where I was going with that one. This one, I might have some ideas, but meh. Anyway, some of the ideas I have in this fanfic are taken from other fanfics, so if you see something that you've used it may or may not have been used from you. Just to warn people, because I've found a lot of ideas and I love them all. One in particular, called _Thomas's Pokemon Adventure _I think.

Green: Can we get on with this, or are you gonna be a stiff about it?

Renny: Abnegation. Red, disclaimer.

Red: Renny doesn't own pokemon!

Renny: On with the show!

**OOOOOO**

**-Pallet town, Oak house-**

An eleven year old boy sat up in his bed. He yawned and tried to get out, but found that he was tangled in a mass of blankets from the night before. The boy groaned slightly and tried to untangle himself, finding it easier to do so if he twisted certain ways.

Eventually the eleven year old managed to get out, and he walked into the bathroom that was joined to his bedroom and locked the door in case his older sister barged in randomly again. He didn't need a repeat of last time.

The boy walked up to the sink, and turned on the tap. He put his hands under it and then splashed his face, effectively half-waking himself up. The boy looked at the mirror in front of him to see his wet face.

Bright, emerald eyes stared back at him, slightly drooped from the fact that he'd only just woken up. His hair was, as always, a grey-brown tangled/spiky mess, but his older sister had said once that if he combed it down it would probably be about shoulder length.

He was still in his white and blue pyjamas, so the boy yawned and went back into his room. He glanced around for the wardrobe that held his clothes, and sluggishly opened it up.

The boy grabbed a long sleeved, thin purple turtle-neck shirt and some pitch black trousers from the wardrobe. He removed his pyjamas and put on the clothes he'd gotten out, and rubbed at his eyes to try and wake himself up a little more.

The boy glanced over at his bedside, where two brown boots with black stripes rested. He took a hold of them and sat down on the bed, putting them on and tucking his trouser legs into them. Then he went over to a small table with a drawer at the bottom of it, and pulled it open.

Inside were various bits of paper and a few pencils, and on top of the small mess rested an amber teardrop pendant with a long, black string. He pulled the pendant out and put it around his neck, closing the drawer at the same time.

The boy muttered something about food, and went over to his door, opening it and walking out. He closed the door, just barely remembering to do so, and found his way down the stairs and into the hallway.

Just in front of him, to the left a little, was the front door. It was always unlocked, because the town he lived in, Pallet, was one of the safest places on Earth. The boy ignored it and went around the bottom of the stairs, to the left.

The hallway was small and only had enough room for about two people to walk side-by-side. Pictures littered the wall that was on the same side as the staircase, most of them of two adults and a couple of small children, occasionally with an old man or something else entirely.

On the other side was a couple of doors, the first one leading to the living room, and the second to the study. At the end of the hallway was another door which led to the kitchen, where the boy could smell food being cooked, and hear a muffled conversation.

He walked up to the door and pushed it open, halting any words that were about to leave the other people's mouths.

"Morning, Green!" A woman, around nineteen, called sweetly. This was the boy's older sister. She looked exactly like him, so much that they could have been twins had the boy not been born eight or nine years after her. The only difference was that her hair was straighter than his, and was a lot longer.

"Hi Daisy." The boy yawned again. Even their voices sounded similar. "Morning, Grandpa."

The boy's Grandfather sat at the table, smiling at him. The old man had short, grey hair from old age, and dark eyes which set him apart from the two bright eyed youths in the house. He also wore what was known as a lab outfit.

"Hello there." The old man nodded. He was known to the world as Professor Samuel Oak, the leading profession in pokemon study. To the boy he was known simply as Grandpa, and nothing else.

"Have a nice sleep?" The woman, Daisy, asked.

The boy sat down at the table, taking a seat opposite his Grandfather, and nodded slightly.

"I had a dream, I think." He mumbled.

"What about?"

"Forgot."

Daisy giggled something about memory, and went back to cooking breakfast. Oak, who we know is the boy's Grandfather, turned to the boy.

"Green, were you talking in your sleep?" He asked.

"Dunno." Green, the boy, murmured. "Was I?"

"I heard something about a fire." Oak frowned. "Did you have a nightmare?"

Green couldn't remember much of his dream, but he did remember that there was something bright in it. It burnt as well.

"Maybe." Green shrugged.

Oak nodded. The boy's family was obviously used to receiving one-worded answers, or just short sentences from him. For that he was grateful, mainly because he didn't like talking unless he had to. Unfortunately, in a world where everyone wanted to talk to you, it was virtually required.

Daisy finished cooking in record time, and set down the plates on the table. For herself she had cooked bacon and eggs, and for Oak it was the same only with toast. Green was a vegetarian, so he was given beans on toast instead.

He quietly set about eating his food, and half-listened to the conversation that he'd interrupted when he walked in.

"Why would someone even think of it, though?" Daisy asked, sighing lightly.

"I'm not entirely sure, but it could have been the spoils that drove him to do so." Oak commented solemnly.

That got Green's interest. Obviously greed involved something to do with either power or money, so whatever they were talking about was interesting to him.

"I guess you wanna know, huh?" Daisy asked the boy. Green nodded, and Oak answered his silent question.

"A man went missing several days ago." The old man began. "According to his partner, he was a researcher, studying myths and things like that, mainly around pokemon."

Daisy picked up Oak's story when he paused to eat some of his food.

"The most recent thing he'd been looking into was the Curse of Ninetales." She explained. "If you grab hold of one of a Ninetales' tails, you get cursed for a thousand years. He wanted to find out whether or not it was true."

"He didn't have a Ninetales at his disposal though." Oak continued. "So he told everyone he was going into the old ruins to see if he could find one, since most are rumoured to live there."

"What about the one I have?" Green asked, pausing in his chewing on the toast he had in his hands.

"He must have either wondered away from the ruins, or evolved from a Fire Stone somewhere else." Oak said. "Anyway, the man has been missing for several days now, and the journey to the ruins should only take two days there and three days back, one to observe the ruins of course."

"Several days?"

"Almost fifteen." Daisy told the boy. "That's why people are starting to get worried and scared. They think some sort of mythical power took him away or something."

"Many seem to think it was Arceus, or maybe the Ninetales themselves." Oak said.

"He probably just got caught up in a mystery or something." Green sighed.

"Maybe, but we still can't rule out the possible threat from pokemon with mythical powers." Oak quietly murmured.

**oooo**

**-Outside-**

Once Green had had his breakfast, he did plan on just watching the TV for a bit. Just to see what was on, maybe the news or even some random cartoon that he used to watch before he matured and began studying pokemon.

Unfortunatly, his plans, however uncertain, were broken apart by another boy who waltzed into the house and had, quite literally, dragged Green outside. Currently the two stood opposite each other, some way away from Green's house, with one sporting a huge grin and the other a massive scowl.

"What do you want?" Green growled.

"Aw, don't be like that!" The boy laughed.

Green huffed. The boy that stood across from him was commonly known as his rival, and the two were almost polar opposites. The boy was slightly taller, being the same age but a few months older, and had jet black hair with a huge, spiky fringe that was near impossible to tame, even when wet.

The black haired boy's eyes were a strange, deep crimson colour, which would probably give anyone a nightmare had he been in a horror film. He wore a red and white cap that was place backwards on his head, and in Green's opinion, making him look stupid. He also wore a red jacket that seemed incapable of zipping or buttoning up, with white sleeves that looked completely separate but actually weren't.

The red eyes boy also had a black t-shirt the same colour as his hair, and blue jeans. His trainers were red and white, which was a weird combination for foot-wear, at least that was what Green thought. Then again, he might have been biased.

"Red, I woke up literally half an hour ago." Green grumbled. "What could you possibly want that was so important?"

"Uhh . . ." Red seemed stuck for words. He found them eventually, much to Green's inner dismay. "Well, you heard about that guy that's been missing for the last few days, right?"

"Not until today, but yes." Green sighed, nodding. Looked like Red was going to suggest something stupid again.

"Well, I was thinking . . ." Here it comes. "We should go and find him!"

"No." Green said bluntly.

"W-why not?" Red cried. "It'll be cool! And we'd be heroes!"

"We're already heroes, or did you forget?" Green snapped.

"Yeah sure, saving Kanto from Team Rocket was nice and all, but we didn't get to travel to ruins to rescue people!" Red started grinning again. "Come on, buddy!"

"I'm not your 'buddy', and the answer remains the same." Green told him coldly. "I refuse to go and get myself killed just because you wanted to get even more fame."

"Champion is just a title, you know." Red muttered.

_Yeah_, Green thought bitterly. _It should have been my title though._

"I'm just saying, we could discover stuff and be like explorers or something!" The crimson eyed boy exclaimed again.

"No."

"Ugh, you're gonna keep on saying that, aren't you?" The Champion sighed.

"That's right, and the answer will never change." Green snapped again. "So leave me alone and go off on your little suicide mission on your own."

Green turned to walk away, aiming to go back inside to see what cartoons he'd missed. Before he did so, the emerald eyed boy noticed a small green cloud falling.

"Sorry I had to do this." He heard Red say.

Green tried to turn around to ask him what he meant, but his body felt sluggish like it had been when he woke up. Green tried to say something, but it came out as a yawn, and his body decided it was time to fall to the ground.

Just as Green's eyes were closing, he saw the blurry figure of Red and felt the crimson eyed boy pick him up, and swore that whenever he woke up, Green was going to kill him. Slowly.

**oooo**

**-Sometime later-**

Green woke up in a cave, with a blanket draped over his body. Upon looking at the entrance, the boy saw it was well into night, and there was a fire going nearby him.

His body may not have been working properly, but his mind was in overdrive.

Red must have somehow thrown out his Venusaur and got it to use Sleep Powder without Green noticing, hence why he'd fallen asleep. Red must have been very desperate to take Green with him if he had resorted to those methods.

Of course, that didn't mean Green was going to take it easy on the slightly older boy. He hadn't had a chance to even grab his pokemon, unless Red had a thought to actually grab them before they left, which Green doubted very much.

The slowly waking up boy suddenly heard footsteps, and he slowly turned his head to see Red walking in, soaking wet, and carrying a small bag.

"You're awake!" Red exclaimed, somehow surprised. "I, uh, didn't expect this so soon, actually."

Green mumbled something neither of them understood, and Red sat down in front of him.

"Sorry about that." He said quietly. "I just . . . well, I didn't want you to be left out of this, even if you didn't want to go. I'm sorry if you're mad and you probably won't wanna talk to me anymore, but . . . We've come this far already, so we may as well go the whole way together."

Green yawned again, embarrassingly loud, and started to feel like he could move without dropping or something. He reached up out of the blanket and patted Red's foot, about the best he could manage right now.

"Green?" Red blinked, looking down at him. Green sighed quietly.

"S' ok." He mumbled. "Bu' do it again an' I poke out ye'r eyes . . ."

"Heh, of course." Red smiled.

A few minutes later, Green's body was working enough for him to sit up and eat something, because they'd been out the entire day. Red had said that his Aerodactyl's speed allowed them to get closer to the ruins then normal in a shorter amount of time, so they were only a few short hours away from it.

"Did you get my pokemon?" Green asked. "Or at least one of them?"

"Uh, I was kinda busy." Red laughed nervously. "So . . ."

"It's a huge no then." Green sighed. "So basically I'm virtually defenceless."

"Not completely!" Red cried. "I mean, you could use a stick or something . . ."

"Against a fire pokemon?"

"Ok, maybe a bucket with water."

Green sighed and was tempted so badly to slap Red, but held back because he'd probably only manage a weak stroke that would no doubt leave both of them feeling awkward.

"Or you could use a really strong iron pole or something."

Forget that, the second he was able to, Green was going to pound his face in.

**oooo**

**-A few hours later-**

"Well, there it is." Red murmured. Green took a quick glance at the small bruise he'd given the boy a few hours ago, smirked, then looked back at what Red was looking at.

'Ruins' was probably the best way to describe the place. It was on the side of a worn-down cliff, partly hidden by the bushes and trees that made up most of the forest around it. The actual thing itself was basically just a stone wall with cracks and a giant, rectangular hole in it, with some random inscriptions placed on it.

"Can we go home now?" Green asked. "We've seen it, and-"

"We're gonna find that guy and bring him back."

Green watched Red walk off towards the huge ruin entrance, and sighed.

" . . . I hate that boy so much." Green muttered to himself.

He followed nonetheless. Green just caught up to Red as he was about to go inside, and they walked in together, quickly turning on the flashlights that Red had actually managed to bring.

It would have been pitch black had they not brought the lights with them, but even with the extra light from outside it was still pretty dark. Here and there Green could have sworn he saw the occasional eye or two watching them, but when he looked over there was nothing but shadows.

"Man, this place is the bomb!" Red whispered excitedly.

"If it has a bomb, we should leave." Green said, misunderstanding the expression.

"It's a figure of speech. Means it's cool." Red explained.

"How is a bomb cool?" Green muttered. Red had already gone off again. Green hissed to himself and rushed forward so they wouldn't get separated.

"OK, we should keep an eye out for any human activity, and maybe any Ninetales activity as well." Red said.

"Who died and made you the leader?"

"I have pokemon, you don't."

"And whose fault is that?"

Red grumbled something, and Green smirked, knowing he'd won. Then the eyes started appearing in more numbers, and this time when Green looked they didn't disappear.

"Uh, by Ninetales activity, did you mean that?" Green asked, tugging on Red's jacket to get his attention.

" . . . Probably." Red said. He was slightly stiff, which Green took as a sign that they should probably get moving, and fast.

"Move it, before they eat us." Green hissed to Red. The crimson eyed boy nodded slightly, and they carried on through the ruins.

They came to a dead end a few minutes later, and shined their lights on the wall. There was no inscriptions on it, no random letters or drawing, just a bunch of old cracks that suggested how old the place was.

"What are you doing?" Green asked.

Red paused from patting the wall, and looked back at Green, squinting in the light aimed at him.

"Looking for a secret passage." He said. "Places like this always have that stuff."

"We should go." Green said. "Those Ninetales might have followed us, and I'm not entirely sure how many corridors this place actually has."

"Ah, stop being a baby."

"Need I remind you, I have no means of defence if they attack us?" Green frowned. "Look, Red, we've search as best we could, now let's go home."

"Just a bit longer." Red murmured. "I know this wall is different . . ."

"Yes, it was built hundreds of years ago, now can we please go?"

Red didn't bother to answer him. Green sighed and turned around to check their route out, and froze.

"Um, Red?"

"Quiet, I think I found something!"

"Red, turn around."

"Not yet, I-"

"Please."

Red turned around and froze as well. Behind them the Ninetales, their eyes glittering in the darkness, slunk silently towards them.

"Yeah, this is why I wanted to go." Green muttered to his companion. They backed up against the old wall, and watched the Ninetales advance with a small amount of fear and worry.

"What're the chances that they just wanna play?" Red hissed to Green.

"They're feral."

"And that means?"

"They'll kill us."

"Oh."

One of the Ninetales, an old one with one blind eye, crept forward. It growled something to the other fox pokemon behind it, and they all crowded around Red and Green, but kept their distance.

"What's it doing?" Red murmured.

"How would I know?" Green hissed back.

The old Ninetales said something that neither of them understood, and suddenly the wall behind them started crumbling. Red and Green looked back to see it falling away, and into a black abyss that swirled around like a tornado.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Red said.

"Same." Green breathed.

Something rammed into Green from behind, and he fell into the huge abyss with a loud cry of shock.

"GREEN!" He heard Red scream.

A few seconds later, Red was knocked into the swirling abyss as well, and Green just got a glimpse of the half-blind Ninetales smiling happily at him as the wall started rebuilding itself.

"No, no!" Red cried. "Don't close, please!"

"Calm down!" Green yelled, even though he was panicking as well. "We'll find a way out of this!"

The wall was gone as soon as it was rebuilt, and then the black abyss started pulling the duo into it.

Over Red's panicked screams, and his own heart beating, Green wondered if this was what had happened to the man who had gone missing several days before hand. Maybe he'd come to the same wall, and the Ninetales had pushed him into the same abyss.

If that was true, then they would end up where he was as well.

Wherever that was meant to be.

**OOOOOO**

Renny: All in one day!

Red: A couple of hours you mean.

Renny: Yep. And so much detail at the start . . . god I never thought I'd get it through.

Green: You force us into a hole of darkness, really?

Renny: This is kinda the prologue, so I can do what I want to.

Red: Right . . .

Renny: Read, review and comment!


	2. Chapter 1- Revitalise

Green: Why is this called _Set Fire To The Rain_?

Renny: Because I'm putting in my own Team from PMD Blue Rescue Team, and it's a fire/water combination. Of course, they'll be some of the main characters, but they won't be in the Team that Red and Green are in. Also because the song is awesome. Listen to the male cover, or go on YouTube and type in _Pokemon Origins Set Fire To The Rain_. I love that AMV . . .

Red: When do we meet our Teammate?

Renny: This chapter. Guess what she'll be?

Green: She? I thought you were gonna make it a male.

Renny: That was the plan, but then I realised I'd be sexist, which is stupid because I'm a girl myself, and decided to have the other Teammate female instead. Unlike in Team Glitched, I'm actually gonna make up my own plot and town and stuff, like a fanfic I read before. I actually like it. When I find out what it's called, you can be sure I'll tell you.

Red: Should we do the disclaimer?

Renny: Yep. Green!

Green: Renny doesn't own pokemon.

Renny: On with the show!

**OOOOOO**

**-Place unknown-**

Red groaned slightly, opening his eyes. He half-expected to see that huge, terrifying abyss that he and Green had been shoved into, but was relieved to see a forest of some sort. He noticed it was a lot bigger than normal forests, the trees being taller and the bushes and grass bigger and longer than what he remembered of them.

But this forest was probably a little overgrown. The crimson eyed boy sat up and looked down at himself. He was alive, hopefully nothing sprained, and he couldn't see any bruises or blood anywhere on his person. Red heard a small squeak beside him, and he glanced down to see Green curled up next to him.

"Hey, wake up!" Red hissed, shaking the smaller boy. "C'mon, open your eyes!"

Green yawned something and opened his eyes, blinking in the light that filtered through the leaves in the trees. Green sat up as well, albeit a little more clumsily than Red did.

"You ok?" Red asked.

"M' fine." Green mumbled. Red smiled a little. It seemed Green had trouble coordinating himself when he was half-asleep.

"Ah, you're both awake, good."

The two jolted, shocked, and looked around. There was no one else with them, so Red was confused.

"W-what was that?" Green whispered.

"I'm hidden, child. Don't worry, I'll reveal myself now."

The massive bushes in front of them rustled, and the old Ninetales with the one blind eye from the ruins emerged from them, smiling like it did when they'd been pushed into the abyss.

"You!" Red cried.

"Yes, me." The Ninetales smiled.

"How're you talking?" Green asked.

"Normally the question is 'how did I get here'." The Ninetales laughed.

"I think he's nuts." Red murmured to Green, who nodded with a dazed expression.

"She, actually." The Ninetales said. "I'm female."

"Oh, sorry." Red swallowed. "But uh . . . the question still stands. How did we get here, and how come you're talking?"

"Allow me to explain this." The Ninetales sat down, wrapping a couple of her tails around her paws and the others trailing across the ground.

She then gestured with one paw to the huge forest they were in.

"We are in a world inhabited only by pokemon. Humans here are mainly legends, as there are none to begin with." She said.

"How is that possible?" Red gasped.

"It's almost like an alternate world to yours, so to speak." The Ninetales carried on. "Anyway, the pokemon here have made their own society. Much like you humans and your own cities and towns, these pokemon have created their own versions and have thrived beautifully. Currently as it stands, there are around seven major towns in this region.

"The region itself doesn't actually have an official name, but many call it Mysteria, because of the Mystery Dungeons that appear constantly. You will learn about these Mystery Dungeons and how they work, along with how the pokemon work, soon enough, so I won't explain it to you. The nearest town is called Anchor town, mainly because the town's symbol is an old anchor they found from a shipwreck near the coast just north of the town."

"Why would we be interested in this?" Green asked. "You just shove us into a portal thing, we wake up in this huge forest thing, and you tell us that we're in a world that has only pokemon in. And you're talking."

"Well, I'm telling you this because it'll come in handy. I'm talking because all pokemon in this world can speak English, and why I think you're interested," The Ninetales smiled. "Is because I'm going to turn you into pokemon yourselves."

"What?" Red said.

"No." Green said straight after.

"Well, I can't exactly leave you to walk around like humans." The Ninetales rolled her eyes. "That would cause a huge ruckus among the pokemon. So I'll change you into pokemon yourselves, just don't go around saying you're actually humans, and you'll be-"

"Hold it." Green snapped. "I didn't say yes to this, and neither did he. Take us back to Kanto."

"I'm afraid I can't do that." The Ninetales said. "Well, physically speaking, I could, but I want to see how you would react to being pokemon."

"That's it?" Red frowned. "No weird reason, like we gotta save this world or something?"

"Oh no, that's already been done like twice." The Ninetales shrugged. "It'd be stupid to send in a couple of humans again for the same reason, so my Clan and I decided to see what would happen if we just left humans to their own devices in this world."

"So basically we're an experiment." Green said flatly.

"That's the gist of it." The Ninetales nodded. "Hopefully you can do better than the man who we sent here last time. He had to go home because he failed."

"Wait, so he did get back?" Red blinked. "Oh, that's good then. At least I won't have to worry whether or not he's here. I kinda thought he'd gone anyway."

"So why didn't we go back?" Green snarled at him. Red laughed nervously, pulling his collar.

"W-well, I kinda wanted to check out the ruins . . . I knew you wouldn't go in without an actual reason, so . . ."

"I hate you." Green said.

"Anyway." The Ninetales interrupted loudly. "You two are going to be turned into pokemon. My Clan and I won't be watching you, so don't worry, but if you die in this world then you will have failed this test, and you'll be sent back to your own world."

"How soon can I die?" Green asked.

"Don't be like that. Try it, and you may like it." The Ninetales said. "Who knows, you may even find friends."

"Yeah, friends." Green scoffed.

Red looked away a little. Green didn't actually have a real friend, as Red had sort of appointed himself the person who hangs out with him, but still isn't an actual friend.

"So, how come this is called a test anyway?" Red asked, swallowing to hide his guilt.

"Well, since we've already sent in a couple of humans to sort out some of the major problems in this world, my Clan and I decided to see how humans could do if their lives weren't at stake." The Ninetales explained. "If course, there's still a chance of dying and all that, but that happens in your world as well. This is to see if humans can actually handle being turned into pokemon while knowing what they're doing instead of having their memories wiped and then returned when they were done with their initial mission."

"So we're not having our own memories wiped?" Red asked, slightly relieved.

"That's right. I'll just turn you into pokemon and you can try and find your way to Anchor town!" The Ninetales smiled.

"Wait, do we get to choose what we are?" Green asked.

"The others didn't, so I don't see why you should get special treatment." The Ninetales shrugged. "Now, the pokemon I choose for you is partly based off of your personality, but it is mainly based off of the pokemon you like the best."

"So if I liked a Rattata I'd become one?" Red smirked. "Heh."

"Well, that's only the main thing, but like I said, personality." The Ninetales said. "Now, I'll start with Red, and then go onto you Green. I won't turn you into pokemon until you both know what you're turning into."

"How come_ he's_ first?" Green demanded. "Why not _me_?"

"You're selfish, so you should learn to be patient and not whine so much." The Ninetales said coldly. Green sort of shrank away at her words.

Red laughed quietly, but he silenced himself when both turned and glared at him.

"Carrying on." The Ninetales muttered. She spoke a bit louder. "Red, I know what you've done for your region, and I know how you act. The way I see it, you're bold natured, and you seem to favour Pikachu and the Poliwag evolution line."

"Uh, yeah." Red nodded.

"Based on how you act, I would say you'd be a Pikachu though." The Ninetales said, nodding to herself.

"A Pikachu?" Green huffed. "Pathetic."

"Don't moan at me if you get a pokemon you don't like." Red snapped at him.

"Now for you." The Ninetales said, turning to Green. "You strike me as a sort of . . . serious and yet naïve person."

"Naïve?" Green smirked. "I'm not stupid, that's him."

"Shut up and let me finish." The Ninetales snapped. Green shut up. "Thank you. You don't actually have a favourite pokemon, but I've seen your journey as well, and you seem to favour normal type pokemon, particularly Eevee."

"I never saw you use one." Red frowned.

"I uh, don't have one."

"You can stop lying anytime now." The Ninetales said flatly.

" . . . Ugh fine, I have a pet Eevee!" Green cried. "Happy now?"

"Yes." The Ninetales nodded.

"You have a pet?" Red asked.

"Moving on." The Ninetales said. "Given the fact that you like Eevee and the fact that many are actually sort of like you until they evolve, you'll be an Eevee."

"Well that was anticlimactic." Green muttered.

"Of course. Now then, you two are going to be put to sleep so you won't feel your bodies changing." The Ninetales said. "If you worry about your clothes like the last man, then don't worry because my Clan and I will keep them safe in case you fail or complete the test."

"Put us to sleep?" Green growled. "That prat over there already did that once, so no."

"Do you want to feel your bones breaking, and then being replaced with new ones?"

"Uh, no."

"Then shut up and allow me to put you to sleep."

Red saw Green nod, but he was too focused on the now glowing eyes of the Ninetales. They were getting brighter and brighter, until it was literally the only thing Red could see. And then he saw and felt nothing.

**oooo**

**-Sometime later-**

"Hey, are you two alright?"

Red groaned, and shifted slightly. He felt weird.

"Hello? Hey!"

There was a small whine next to him, but Red didn't bother to open his eyes to whatever it was.

"Hello!"

And he also wished that whoever that person was would shut up.

"Hey, Pikachu!"

Pikachu?

"Eevee? Hey, wake up already!"

Red blinked open his eyes, and looked at his hands. Paws, he corrected himself. He was now a Pikachu, just like the Ninetales had said. He sighed and tried to sit up, feeling a bit happy he managed to do so without many problems.

"Oh, great, I thought you'd died or something." Someone sighed in relief.

Red looked up, frowning, into the eyes of a red bird. He yelped and fell backwards, half-crawling away from it.

"Hey, hey, I won't hurt you!" The red bird said. It was tall, almost lanky, and had bright yellow eyes.

The other huge thing about this red bird was that its left arm was missing, and in place of it was a scar in the shape of an 'X'.

"Um, hey." Red mumbled, trying out his new voice. It sounded exactly like his human one, so the Ninetales hadn't been lying when she said that the pokemon spoke human English.

"Are you alright?" The red bird asked. "Uh, hello?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine." Red nodded slightly.

"Good, because I found the two of you passed out and thought the worst." The red bird laughed.

"Yeah . . ." Red breathed. "Uh, mind telling me what you are?"

"Rude. The first question is normally 'what's your name'." The red bird said. "But I'll tell you anyway. I'm Kyoto, and I'm a pokemon called Combusken."

"Oh, right." Red said. Combusken? Must be one of the newer ones that Oak told him about one time.

"Oh and in case you're wondering, I'm female." The Combusken, Kyoto, said. "Most pokemon can't tell the difference because of how much I sound like a boy."

"Right." Red nodded. "Uh, I'm Red and uh . . . I'm a Pikachu?"

"I already know that, but what about your Eevee friend here?" Kyoto asked, pointing her single hand/claws at the pokemon next to Red.

Eevee? Red assumed that the pokemon next to him was Green.

Red looked down at the still sleeping Eevee next to him, and took in the strange appearance. It seemed as though Green's fur was darker than normal Eevee's fur, and it was a lot greyer as well (Red just decided to call the colour dark grey). Red could just see the pendant that the boy always wore around his neck still, just about hidden by the fur around his neck.

Red shoved Green's side and waited for a reaction. The boy-turned-Eevee did nothing but roll onto his other side, mumbling something about fires.

"Green, wake up!" Red yelled.

Green rolled back into his original position, and opened his eyes to glare at Red. The Eevee's eyes were still the same colour as before.

"What." He hissed. "What do you want now."

"Green, we're pokemon." Red mumbled to him.

Green immediately sat up, or tried to, and fell down onto his paws again.

"Why can't I- oh." Green sighed. "Does this mean I gotta learn to walk again?"

"Probably. Me to, I'm not used to having a tail." Red said, glancing at said tail.

"Did you two hit your heads?" Kyoto asked.

"Combusken!" Green yelped.

"No, no, she's alright!" Red cried. "I think. You're not gonna kill us are you?"

"If you insult me I will, but if you don't you're safe." Kyoto nodded.

"Ok." Green said, wide eyed. Red would have laughed at his rival's expression had he not been a little concerned at the answer he got.

"Anyway, uh . . . We're kinda new." Red said, clearing his voice a little. "And well . . . it seems like we forgot some stuff."

"You're the humans that Niles foresaw, right?" Kyoto asked.

"W-what?" Red spluttered.

"Don't worry, only a few pokemon know." Kyoto said. "I only called you Pikachu and Eevee in case I didn't get your names right." Red was still stuck on the fact that Kyoto knew.

"If you knew why didn't you say so in the first place?" Green snapped.

"Well, there might have been someone following me or something." Kyoto shrugged. It looked strange when the small stump shrugged as well, almost unnatural.

"Makes a bit of sense, I guess." Red said. "So uh . . . Since you know we're humans, can you help us?"

"With what exactly?"

"Walking." Green muttered.

"Oh right, I kinda forgot humans walk on two legs without a tail." Kyoto slapped her head with her clawed hand. "Sorry. Ok, I'll start with you since you've only got a tail to work with."

About half an hour later, or what seemed like it for Red, he was walking without tripping or falling on his face. Green was done with his own mini lessons as well, and was able to walk around without much trouble as well.

"Alright, neither of you know how to use moves, right?" Kyoto asked.

"Eevee has physical attacks, so I should be fine." Green shrugged.

"Not really. There is some stuff that Eevee can learn, like Swift or Shadow Ball." Kyoto explained.

"But Swift can only be learnt at level 10." Green said pointedly.

"Yeah, but I'm just saying." Kyoto sighed. "Anyway, I can teach you on the way to Anchor town. Come on, you two."

Red stood from his place where he was resting, and quickly followed the one armed Combusken down the small path that led away from their little resting place.

Even if Red knew how to walk, but would maybe take some time before he could actually use the moves he was given. By the way Kyoto was talking, Red guessed both he and Green were around level 5 or something like that, since Green was right when he said Eevee learnt Swift at level 10. But Red was more interested in finding this 'Anchor town' rather than learning how to use Thundershock, but if he got some way of defending himself instead of using his pokemon (which Red assumed the Ninetales has taken along with his clothes), then he was happy enough.

**oooo**

**-Sometime later, outside the forest-**

"We're almost there, so try not to fry anyone with Thundershock." Kyoto sighed. "You know, like you did with that tree earlier?"

"I said sorry." Red muttered.

"Try telling that to the tree."

"How much farther?" Green asked from behind them. He'd had the worst time walking, because the pads in his new four paws were soft and he's stepped on several stones, which was painful. He didn't let Red and Kyoto forget it either.

"Not that much." Kyoto called back to him. He'd practised some moves, Tackle and Flail, and had done pretty well despite not being able to withstand the force of basically head-butting a tree.

"Good, my feet hurt."

"So you've said." Red muttered to himself.

At least he and Green could use moves to defend themselves now. And at least Kyoto knew who and what they were, so they didn't have to explain how they couldn't walk or even use moves at all. It would have been weird, given the fact that neither knew anything about this world, even Green, who occasionally boasted about having a better memory than Red did.

But Red also had to wonder about the Ninetales and her Clan. Why were they pushing normal human beings into a world filled with only pokemon, and turning the humans into pokemon to boot? Red gave a small, wry smile. If Green had heard those thoughts, he probably would have said something along the lines of 'leave the thinking to those with brains'.

Now, Red had to admit, Green was smarter and certainly better at planning stuff out, even in a split second, but Red was also a competent battler with his pokemon, and he could easily destroy Green's plans if he knew them. Most of the time Green's plans were see-through, but he almost always had a back-up plan that Red didn't see.

But that still didn't give Green the right to say Red was an idiot.

He sighed quietly. Red was getting off track, and thoughts of his rival were too frustrating to actually deal with.

He moved his mind back to the Ninetales thing. They could have just sent in one person who was a good battler, like a Champion of one of the newer regions. But they sent in a couple of kids, and before that a random man who probably didn't have any strong pokemon at all.

He didn't understand that at all. Green would have come up with all sorts of theories by now, and Red didn't like that one bit. But at least he had brute strength to make up for his own inability to come up with amazing ideas and stuff like Green did, though he was hardly an idiot.

Getting off-track again.

"Are you alright?" Kyoto asked suddenly.

Red jolted out of his thoughts, and glanced up at the one-armed Combusken.

"Yeah, just thinking to myself." He said, smiling what he hoped to be a convincing smile.

"Cool." Kyoto nodded slightly. "Well, we're just about there. It's over that bridge there, see? The one with the waterfall just right of it?"

Red looked over and, indeed, there was a bridge with what looked like a roof over it, and there was a small waterfall to the right of it. The bridge was actually made out of stone, probably in case of fire pokemon or the water rushing out and sweeping it away. On the other side was what looked like a typical coastal town, with, again, stone buildings and markets.

That was all he could see so far, but he was sure Kyoto would give him and Green a tour of the place in her spare time or something.

"Alright, now I've said this before, but please be careful." The one armed Combusken said again. "There are quite a few water types in this town, since it's a coastal town, and I don't want to be responsible for any damage you do."

"Um, right." Red nodded.

"That goes for you as well, Green." Kyoto warned, glancing down at the dark grey furred Eevee.

"Why?" Green yawned slightly. "Not like I can hit anyone."

"You might accidently hit someone in the face with your tail." Kyoto said, looking back at the stone bridge. "And if that happens . . . well, let's just say that some of the residents of Anchor town don't like their faces being whipped by a ball of fluff."

"'Ball of fluff'?" Green echoed angrily.

"Best way to describe an Eevee's tail, really." Kyoto shrugged. Again, Red was slightly fascinated by how the small stump moved as well.

"Fine, whatever." Green grumbled.

"Come on, let's get going." Kyoto called cheerfully. She started off for the bridge, and Red trailed behind her, taking in the sights. Green was behind Red, scowling at the ground, most likely stung by the 'ball of fluff' comment. Red made a note to taunt him with it for fun in future provided Green doesn't learn Dig anytime soon.

**OOOOOO**

Renny: Oh god finally . . .

Green: You're the one who kept adding.

Renny: I actually planned this to stop somewhere in Red's rambling, but it kinda got interesting and well . . . yeah. Anyway, I found the fanfic that this is hugely referencing. It's called _Heart of the Storm_, and it's probably the best PMD fanfic I've ever read, not that I've actually read many of them.

Red: You plan to, though?

Renny: Hopefully. Maybe to get ideas for this fanfic, since I'm totally only just basing it off my own PMD Blue Rescue Team game, and largely off of my own ideas and some from _Heart of the Storm_.

Green: Right . . .

Renny: Anyway, read, review and comment! I wanna know what you think about this, and I know people are reading my story, because I've seen some views on it already, but no reviews.


	3. Chapter 2- Infinity bar

Renny: Another Green chapter!

Green: Seriously?

Renny: Yes, seriously. Expect a lot of detail for description in this, because it's sort of in Green's personality to focus more on little things than anything else.

Red: And mine is to focus on the big picture?

Renny: I see Green as a person who is serious, yet innocent and naïve in the real world. He also has a huge problem with being fussy over little details, so he explains things in his own head to make sure it all makes sense and it fits perfectly fine. He's kind of a perfectionist, if you will.

Green: I am not a perfectionist!

Renny: For purposes of this story you are.

Green: Grr.

Renny: Red, disclaimer.

Red: Renny doesn't own pokemon!

Renny: On with the show!

**OOOOOO**

**-On the way to Anchor town-**

While they were walking across the huge stone bridge, Green decided to study Red and the Combusken who had introduced herself as Kyoto.

First of all, Green was sort of the person- no, pokemon now- who would not get up unless forced to, or if he was left alone to wake up whenever he wanted to. Hence why he was always so prone to snapping and random outbursts of panic when he was woken up forcibly, even if he didn't understand that about himself to start off with.

That was probably why he'd not taken much detail into account when he'd woken up, instead opting to go on the defensive when Kyoto introduced herself to him. She was nice, the new Eevee presumed, but she seemed very eager, almost desperate, to talk to someone.

There was something she was hiding. Green knew that instantly, from the guarded look in her eyes to the way she acted around them- friendly but scared, as if they were judging her every second of the way. Not like Green wasn't, but he liked to judge people. Or in this case, pokemon.

Kyoto the Combusken had one arm, her right one. The left was gone, just a tiny, tiny stub with a large, angry looking 'X' in place of where the bone should be, which suggested that maybe it was cut off by some pokemon with scythes, like a Scyther or something, maybe even a Pinser. The area around the small stub was withered, as if the feathers on her body were unable to grow around that particular part, which was understandable since the arm was gone.

He moved onto her crest, which were just three bright orange feathers on top of her head. The middle one looked more worn than the other two, which probably meant that Kyoto had been in her fair share of fights. Her eyes were circular yet sharp, holding as much emotion as any human being would ever have, and they were a bright brown colour. The shoulders, or shoulder it should have been, was a bit broader than the pictures of normal Combusken he'd seen in his Grandfather's notes, and her right arm was muscled, but still thin. The claws were sharp, and acted like a hand obviously, but were most likely used for fighting as well.

Her legs were darker and thicker than what Green had expected, with sharper claws and more bird-like feet, which was probably a way of using a move called Double Kick in more than just one way, like kicking your opponent and then gripping them if they block, and throwing them or something.

Green got bored of studying their Combusken companion, and moved onto Red, who was trotting happily alongside Green. Despite not actually having a tail before they got to this world, Red seemed to have adjusted perfectly fine in a short amount of time, whereas Green was still in danger of falling onto his nose, even if he had a bit more balance.

The human-turned-Pikachu was a tiny shade darker than normal Pikachu, but not enough to notice the difference from a first glance, especially around the top part of where his hair had been. That particular part of his fur was spiked up a little, and was easily noticeable as a dark, almost black yellow. The stripes that made up most of his back were completely jet black though, so at least he hadn't been cheated out of his whole hair colour.

Red didn't seem to have anything on him, no clothing or anything, so it seemed as though Green was the one who had retained anything other than voice and a small amount of spiky hair/fur upon being transformed into pokemon.

Red's eyes remained the same as well, startlingly crimson in colour, and almost seeming to glow in the dark. It looked unusual for a Pikachu of all creatures to have that sort of colour eyes, but to anyone else it must have looked strange for Green to be an Eevee and have emerald eyes.

The emerald eyed Eevee glanced down at a puddle as he passed it, but didn't stop to study it.

From the brief look he'd just gotten, it appeared as though Green's fur was more dark-grey than normal Eevee's fur, which would put him apart from all of them instantly. Like Red, some of the fur on top of his head was spiked up, only Green's was more similar to his actual hair colour than Red's was. His eyes were the same, and as far as Green could tell there was nothing else.

Green looked down at his paws briefly, checking to see if any sort of random 'socks' had made their way onto them. 'Socks' were what humans called the fur that was around a pokemon's paw if it was different. For example, if a Meowth had white fur, as they did, and its paws were black, it would have black 'socks'.

Green almost smiled when he realised that his own 'socks', the two on his front paws, were silver in colour. A quick glance behind him showed that his back paws had the same colour, and his tail looked definitely like a huge ball of fluff like Kyoto had said. It didn't seem as insulting now that he'd seen it for himself.

His eyes focused on where he was walking for now. The stone bridge disappeared and in its place was grass and dirt, which meant that they were now in Anchor town.

"Welcome to Anchor town, you two!" Kyoto grinned, further emphasising his point.

"Wow!" Red exclaimed.

Green said nothing. It was remarkably similar to Pallet town, although many of the builds Green could see were obviously one-floored only, and all were made from stone. There was a trail to his left, leading off to a beach he presumed, since his sense of smell, helpfully heightened by his new form, told him that there was an ocean there.

"Come on, I'll take you to my brother's pub." Kyoto said, starting off. Green and Red followed without question, but Green had to wonder.

"Pub?" He inquired. "Pokemon have pubs?"

"More of an Inn-bar, but yeah." Kyoto nodded, glancing down at him. The action made Green feel smaller than what his new form made him.

Green guessed her brother must have either been a Combusken like her, or the evolved form of her species known as Blaziken.

"He calls the place the Infinity bar, since he never turns down a customer without good reason." Kyoto said. "He also has rules, so to be safe I'll tell you them now. If he says them again, listen in case I forgot something."

Green's ears perked up, something which he was unused to feeling, but he did know how to do it. Daisy had once said he was more suited for being a pokemon because of the way he acted sometimes.

"The first rule is, no fighting with other pokemon in the bar, or any who are staying there. If you do fight, you and the one, or ones, who were fighting are kicked out for a day." Kyoto explained. "Next, is that anyone who I bring in can eat, drink and sleep there for free. Namely, you two. I don't bring in anyone often since I don't actually have many friends, so this is normally a huge thing."

Well, there was the first step in finding out Kyoto's little 'secret'. She didn't have many friends, which could explain why she seemed so eager to talk to them, and yet so afraid at the same time, which resulted in blabbering.

"And the last one is basically no stealing, or anything of the sort." Kyoto went on, as they walked through what looked like a wide street with a few pokemon carrying bags and carting around, well carts. "If you get accused of doing anything like that, my brother's assistant and best friend will find out whether or not you're guilty."

"Who's your brother's assistant?" Red asked.

"You'll find out, don't worry."

Kyoto stopped at a large building, which had two or three more floors than the others Green had seen before, and was also painted brown. The one-armed Combusken shoved the door, which didn't have a knob or anything so Green assumed this was to benefit pokemon who didn't have hands, and walked inside. Green and Red followed again.

The place did indeed look exactly like a pub, with tables made out of logs scattered around with a few pokemon sitting down, having meals and doing other stuff. There was a door that was large enough to be double some way to the right, which was probably where the Inn part of the place.

Kyoto walked up to the bar, leaving Green to kick the door closed while Red bounded after her, staring at the whole place with an awe-struck look on his face. Green walked up just as a Blaziken with a black scarf sauntered over from behind the bar, holding a cup in one clawed hand and a cloth in the other, smiling brightly.

"Hey there sis." He greeted, in a deep voice. "You vising for a reason, or . . .?"

"Sorry." Kyoto smiled, shaking her head. "I've got a couple of patrons here, so if you could let them in for free, as your rules state . . ."

"Yeah, sure, don't worry." The Blaziken nodded. "I can't see them very well. Mind hopping onto the stools there for me?"

The two human-turned-pokemon did so, and were a little surprised at the delighted laugh they got.

"Whoo, Pikachu _and_ Eevee!" He grinned. "Don't see many of them these days. Most have evolved or they're just not around here. What's your names?"

"I'm Red." Red smiled, clearly at ease. Green, however, didn't feel as though he could talk to someone so powerful looking as Kyoto's brother.

"Um, is he mute or something?" The Blaziken asked, frowning.

"He's just shy." Red said. "His name's Green, by the way."

Green nodded slightly, too focused on how many scars the Blaziken had to actually bother to snap at Red for the 'shy' comment.

"Awesome names, and very fitting." The Blaziken said. "I'm Kaven, Kyoto's older and certainly more awesome brother."

"Just because you're fully evolved and I'm not." Kyoto huffed. "I love you and all, but you're an arrogant little prick, you know that?"

"Yep. Anyway, I presume you'll be staying with your new friends?" Kaven asked, wiping the cup absentmindedly.

"As always." Kyoto nodded.

"So we actually get a room for free?" Red blinked. "Cool! I wonder what it's gonna look like . . ."

"Don't expect anything fancy." Kaven warned. "It'll just be a few hay beds and some plants and maybe a couple of tables if you're lucky, most of the time just one."

Red obviously didn't pay attention, so when the trio went up to their room and it was just like Kaven described, he was a bit bummed out.

"I wanted a bed." He muttered, flopping down onto one of the hay bed things.

Green padded onto the one next to him, watching Kyoto sit down on the one opposite them.

"Well, for pokemon, these are beds." She explained. "I'm not an expert on human stuff, but I do know that these hay beds are really nice once you get used to them. 'Sides, if you ever go on a long journey, you'll be happy to get into one of these."

"I'll probably learn from experience." Red said, waving a paw around airily.

"Heh. You two are weird, even for humans." Kyoto laughed. "Anyway, I was thinking I could show the two of you around after Kaven's assistant cooks up some breakfast for us, what do you say?"

"I'm in!" Red sat up almost immediately, grinning.

"No meat." Green said.

"You're vegetarian?" Kyoto and Red asked at the same time.

"Ok, I expected that reaction from her, not you." Green frowned at Red.

"Hey, I never knew!" Red cried. "Not like you stayed over at my house or anything."

"So a vegetarian meal for you, then?" Kyoto asked. Green nodded. "Alright then. It's a bit surprising since Eevee's are actually carnivores, but I keep forgetting you're not exactly an Eevee."

"Yes, of course." Green muttered. "Can I go to sleep now? I'm tired and all that."

"I'll go downstairs and ask for a little snack." Kyoto said, standing up and making her way to the door. "Don't complain to me when me or Red wake you up though."

Green grunted in response, and rolled onto his side.

**oooo**

**-The next morning-**

As it turned out, Kaven's assistant was a Slowbro, who actually didn't look as slow as his name suggested, with one milky white eye. The water/psychic type greeted them politely, and levitated some drinks and food over to their table.

"Oran berries for the little Eevee, bacon and eggs for the Pikachu, and Wurmple stew for Kyoto as usual." The Slowbro said, using his psychic powers to place the trays down.

Green shifted away from Red slightly when the new Pikachu started scoffing down his food, especially the bacon, and glanced down at his own food. It was strange, to be eating what was meant to be for pokemon, but since he was now a pokemon Green guessed he would have to do this sort of thing.

"And Pecha juice for all three." The Slowbro continued. The drinks were set down carefully, and the Slowbro sat down at the empty seat next to Kyoto.

"Hey, how's things going here?" Kyoto asked. "I hope Kaven's not giving you too much grief."

"He never does, don't worry." The Slowbro chuckled. He glanced down at Red and Green, who had stopped eating to listen. "Hello there, new faces. I'm Psycho, but don't be put off by the name. I'm not insane or anything."

"Tell that to the pokemon you arrested." Kyoto huffed, starting on her own meal.

"You're a cop?" Red asked, stuffing some eggs into his mouth. Green grimaced at his table manners, and went back to eating, but still listened.

"Oh no, no." Psycho waved a paw in the air, smiling lazily. "My team and I just apprehended them, the actual cops are doing their own thing somewhere."

"Sometimes I wonder whether or not Lars is a good cop or not." Kyoto mused. "He never seems to do any work at all."

"Officer Magnus wasn't that much better." Psycho said. "It didn't bother to do any work, but at least it tried to involve itself a bit more than Lars does."

"It?" Red blinked.

"Magnus is a Magnezone, which is a genderless pokemon." Psycho told him.

"It's an evolution of Magneton, right?" Green asked.

"That's right, little Eevee." Psycho nodded. "And Lars is a Honchkrow, but he does nothing about the outlaws that are actually around. Sometimes he even takes the credit for when a Team apprehends a pokemon for himself."

"If you ask me, sounds like a bad sheriff." Green muttered.

"Totally." Red said. "Doesn't anyone do anything about him?"

"Not really." Kyoto sighed. "He's basically the law of this town, and the town mayor doesn't want him gone because he's her younger brother."

"Wait, another Honchkrow is running things here?" Red gasped. "Is she like him?"

"No, nothing like him. Hillary is actually really nice, and she's always trying to come up with new ways in which pokemon in this town can live peacefully. I don't think Lars even cares though." Psycho shrugged. "It's not up to us whether or not he goes, and since Hillary won't have any bad words said against him, he's staying as our law enforcement, even if he does nothing but sit at his little desk and writing out wanted posters."

"I hate the guy." Kyoto said flatly. "Once he tried to warrant an arrest for Kaven just because he beat someone up, when in actual fact it was Kaven who got beaten up, and he acted in self-defence. Honestly, I've never seen or heard of such a bad cop . . ."

"Is he the only cop in town?" Red asked.

"Yep. No one else wanted the job." The one-armed Combusken nodded.

"So naturally they give it to some moron who doesn't know how to do it." Green rolled his eyes. "Of course. Just like Kanto . . ."

"What's Kanto?" Psycho asked. "Is it a new town?"

"Uh, yeah." Kyoto nodded quickly. "That's where these two are from. It's actually sort of off the map, so I don't think you can find it."

"I'm sure Blitzen would want to find it though." Psycho smiled again. "He's always looking for an excuse to get away from the dojo."

"You have a dojo here?" Green's ears, once again, pricked up.

"We do." Kyoto answered him. "It's run by two pokemon. Blitzen is a Raichu who would rather be exploring than training, and his partner is a Vaporeon by the name of Lilac."

"Cool." Red grinned. "Can we go there?"

"After the tour." Kyoto said.

"Anyway, as I was saying, we could probably find this Kanto place if we tried to." Psycho chuckled. "And of course, if you two know the way-"

"We got lost." Green interrupted. "Really lost. Not sure how we got here, so . . . we don't know where it is actually."

"Sort of hidden I guess." Psycho raised what could have been an eyebrow had he had any. "Like the Hidden Land?"

"Oh for- Yes, Psycho, we know your team found the Hidden Land, but it doesn't mean you have to brag." Kyoto sighed.

"We are the only ones who are allowed in, though." Psycho was smirking now, but he wasn't being mean. "So we do have bragging rights."

"Ugh." Kyoto grunted, putting her hand over her face. "Stop talking, or I'll Ember your face off."

"Water/psychic, I have a double advantage." Psycho said.

"Hey, type advantage doesn't need to work all the time." Red snickered. "I once saw a Venusaur beat up a Charizard."

"Oh hardy-har." Green muttered under his breath.

"Must have been one lucky Venusaur then." Kyoto smiled. "Was he a friend of yours?"

"Yep. And the Charizard was his friend." Red pointed to Green briefly. "We kinda made a bet to see who would win out of the two of them with the whole town, and Saur won. I kinda got a load of money that day."

Green scowled at Red, who smirked back. Trust that moron to be smug about his totally lucky battle at the pokemon league in front of others.

"Oh, you must have been happy." Psycho smiled. "Bringing us back to what we were originally talking about, are you going to give these two a tour of Anchor?"

"That's right." Kyoto nodded. "Red's more enthusiastic about it than Green is, but I'll drag both of them if I have to."

Green was actually interested in Anchor town and the facility itself, but he didn't really want to show that in case a certain someone (looking at you Red) started saying stuff that wasn't very nice. Of course, Red would probably say stuff even if Green pretended he didn't care, but at least Green could take that instead.

"Does this place have a market?" Red asked.

"Yep." Psycho said. "It's run by Niles and Screen, the Espeon and Umbreon brothers. Niles is the Espeon, and Screen is the Umbreon."

Green vaguely remembered Kyoto mentioning a 'Niles' back when she first revealed that she knew they were humans. It would make sense that this 'Niles' creature was an Espeon, since many Espeon were the sort of pokemon to be telling the future and stuff like that. Niles was a fairly decent name, but strange. Of course Screen was just a weirder name, even for an Umbreon.

"Whenever you three are done, call me over." Psycho smiled, standing up. He started off towards the bar, where a couple of Rattata were waiting.

"See you." Kyoto waved her hand slightly.

"He seems cool." Red said, going back to scoffing down his bacon and eggs again.

Green went back to his Oran berries, finding that he really liked the way they tasted. They were almost like strawberries in his own world, and Green wondered if this one had strawberries as well. If they did, he would probably throw a party.

"He is." Kyoto said. "He and my brother met when Psycho and his team came to Anchor, seeking new adventures and such. He forgot to mention as well, he's on the same Team as Blitzen and Lilac are on. There's a fourth member, but you'll meet him soon enough."

Green wondered what that fourth member was. It could have been anything, but if one member of the Team was an electric type and the other two water, Green could guess it was probably another electric pokemon. Maybe a Jolteon or something.

"Oh yeah, Lilac's a human as well." Kyoto said casually.

"What!?" Red cried. Green dropped the Oran berry in his mouth, staring at the bird in shock.

"Yep. She's actually one of the two human-turned pokemon that saved the world." Kyoto smirked, most likely because of their actions. "I'm not sure where or who the other one is, so you won't meet them I'm afraid."

"Wait, does this mean the entire reason we're going to the dojo is because you want us to meet Lilac?" Green asked.

"Yep. She can give you some pointers on how to adjust to being a pokemon." Kyoto told them. The one-armed Combusken stretched and finished off her meal quickly.

"Well, that's helpful." Red said. "But isn't it a bit random to announce it like that? You could have like, built up tension or something."

"This isn't a book." Kyoto rolled her eyes. "I'm not gonna hold something like that off just because you want some tension and shock when you find out from Lilac herself, you know."

"Better to find out sooner than later." Green muttered.

"I'd rather find out later." Red huffed, finally finishing his food as well. "It's cooler that way."

"And you'll moan when you actually do find out, and say that she should have said something before." Green said dryly.

"Well, uh, maybe, but still!" Red sighed. "Would have been more story-like."

"We're not in a book." Green and Kyoto said together.

**OOOOOO**

Renny: I love that last bit.

Green: You know Red won't explain stuff as much as I will in the next chapter, right?

Renny: Exactly. I know trust that other people can tell what I'm telling them about without your huge and detailed explanations, which only work for about half the chapter.

Red: Then you get bored and make him not pay attention to details.

Renny: Yep. And I'm happy with how well this is turning out actually. Shame there's literally one review of this. COME ON PEOPLE I NEED TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK, JESUS.

Green: Who's Jesus?

Renny: Never you mind.

Red: Random person we'll never know about?

Renny: Oh yeah, totally.

Green: I don't like you at all.

Renny: I know. Read, review and comment!


	4. Chapter 3- Anchor town

Renny: I've changed the name from _PKMD: Set Fire To The Rain_ to _PKMD: Rising Cain_, because _Rising Cain_ sounds a hell of a lot better.

Red: Is that all you needed to say?

Renny: Yep! I'm not actually sure whether or not people actually like this, BECAUSE NO ONE REVIEWS EXPECT FOR A GUEST WHO REVIEWED A COUPLE OF TIMES (thank you BTW), so I'd like for someone to actually say what they think of it, instead of just sitting there, reading it, thinking what they think and then walking off without a second thought. Do you not like my story? If not, then say so and I'll try to make it better. That's what reviews are for, dammit!

Green: . . . Are you done now?

Renny: *Pants* Yes. Yes I am. Disclaimer.

Red: Renny doesn't own pokemon!

Renny: On with the show.

**OOOOOO**

**-In the town-**

The first place Kyoto showed them was the main square that was a fifteen minute walk from the Infinity bar. There were stalls nearly everywhere, but a few had more customers than any others.

"This one here is the Eon wares." Kyoto said, nodding towards the largest stall which stood proudly in the middle of the huge square, with an Umbreon and an Espeon levitating things to customers and taking money. There was a small Sandshrew taking money from the customers, which was probably how the customers paid for their things, Red guessed. He didn't need Green to tell him that.

"The Espeon is Niles, and the Umbreon is Screen." Kyoto went on.

"They're the ones who you told us earlier?" Red asked. "They seem cool."

"They are. Screen's a bit more ditzy than Niles is, and he has this weird habit of randomly using Screech at someone if he wants to, hence the name. So if he takes a deep breath, cover your ears." Kyoto chuckled. "Niles is the more sharp-tongued one, he's probably the one you'd go to if you want someone to challenge you intellectually. Also, he's the Espeon who told me about you, so don't be shy around either of them."

Kyoto took them to a stall which was small, but had a larger building that was brown and made from steel behind it. A large Ninetales with only eight tails was resting on the counter.

"This is the Bank." Kyoto said. "Nessie is the one who keeps everyone's money for them."

"Why does it only have eight tails?" Green wondered. Red was surprised he even asked.

"Scars." The Ninetales rumbled, looking up with a lazy expression. Its voice sounded male, so Red assumed it was male. "Got it torn off by a wild Rhydon."

"He doesn't talk much, but he can get going if he wants to." Kyoto told them as Nessie went back to sleeping again.

The one-armed Combusken moved onto a stall with a large Marowak sitting on the stall desk, tossing its bone up and down as it leaned against the poles that held up the stall top. Red could see its skull-helmet was cracked, probably from a fight with another hard-headed pokemon.

"This here is Marrow." Kyoto said. "She's-"

"I'm the pokemon in charge of storage, and if you ever try to steal from me, I'll have your tails." The Marowak snapped. "So if you think about stealing someone's belongings just because you don't like them, think twice."

"That pretty much sums everything up." Kyoto laughed. "She's kind of a grump, and absolutely hates stealing, even if it wasn't her things the pokemon stole."

"Grump, am I?" Marrow scoffed. "You ought to see her when she's in a bad mood, kids."

"Just because I'm a fire type."

"Yeah. Not fond of fires, but I can tolerate you." Marrow said. "If only because you're the only one who can keep me on my toes."

"Of course I can."

Kyoto waved briefly to the Marowak, and went onto another stall which had treasure boxes all over the place, and a small Meowth was fiddling with one.

"This is Apricot. She can open pretty much any lock with her claws, so she's in charge of opening up any treasure boxes the explores find." Kyoto said, nodding to the cat.

"I call this the Box Appraisal." The Meowth smiled, looking up from the box. "It fits the name and what I do, and I like to fiddle with the boxes I find or someone else finds. It's fun getting them open and find out what's inside."

"Better to leave your doors unlocked when she's in the area." Kyoto smirked. "You only make that mistake once."

"Very true, very true." Apricot nodded. "It's also fun to see pokemon's reactions when I barge into their rooms or something. Very fun as well."

"As you can see, she gets so busy sometimes she forgets to talk properly." Kyoto giggled quietly.

"Hi, nice to meet you." Red smiled. He poked Green when the boy-turned-Eevee said nothing.

"Hi." Green muttered. Red rolled his eyes. He knew what Green was thinking. If they didn't say hello to the others, then why say hello to Apricot? Of course, that didn't matter, but Red could see Green cared a bit about it.

"Anyway, we should get a move on." Kyoto said. "Bye, Apricot!"

"Goodbye new friends!" The Meowth called, going back to her box again.

Kyoto led them around a few pokemon, one or two being so large that they actually had to wait for them to walk past before they could resume their journey.

"Hey, how come we didn't say hi to the others?" Green asked.

"Technically we did. And Niles and Screen were too busy with their customers, and Sandy was busy getting their money in case they tried to run off."

Red guessed that Sandy was the little Sandshrew he'd seen at the market.

"Fine, whatever." Green muttered.

Kyoto rolled her eyes and took them to a building made out of what looked like pink stone, though it was probably painted, and had a double door with a couple of windows on them. There were various other windows as well, and when Red looked in he could see numerous little pokemon running around and a couple of Kangaskhan and a Chansey running after them.

"The Daycare." Kyoto said. "The Chansey that runs it is called Missy for some reason, not even she knows why, and the two Kangaskhan who aid her are twins who don't have kids, one by the name of Kanga, and the other by the name of Kenga."

"Seriously?" Green asked dryly. Even Red face-palmed(pawed?) at the silly names.

"Kangaskhan aren't the most . . . creative when it comes to names." Kyoto sighed. "They're more interested in looking after young rather than naming them. Which is why all the kids or wild pokemon there have names before-hand."

"You keep saying that." Red frowned. "Wild pokemon. I thought this world had only pokemon in it, so how can there be wild pokemon?"

"I'll tell you after I show you the next place." Kyoto said.

"Fair enough." Red shrugged. A glance at Green told him it probably wasn't for him.

Next, Kyoto took them to a stall nearby the market, where a Wartortle was sitting, snoozing.

"Waren, Waren!" Kyoto called. "Wake up, I got someone you can talk to!"

"Huh, nff, what?" The Wartortle snuffled, opening his eyes and glancing around. The blue turtle glanced down at Red and Green, then grinned.

"Well, howdy!" He said, grinning. "Name's Waren, as the young lady there just told y'all. I run what's known as the Link shop. Not many pokemon come here to actually link moves, they just want to chat with me."

"He's probably the one of the most friendly pokemon here." Kyoto explained. "Just about everyone wants to be his friend."

"Well shucks, I didn't think it was like that." Waren chuckled.

"He's also incredibly modest and has a bad lying face."

Waren burst into a full blown laugh, which was so contagious that everyone besides Green started laughing as well. Once they calmed down, Waren looked at the little Eevee.

"Well, a sourpuss now?" He rose what could have been an eyebrow. "Don't ye' worry little 'un. I'll probably fix that within days. Just come here as often as you can, or drag him here if y'all wanna, and he'll be easy to approach."

"We'd do that, but he might tear our fur and feathers out." Kyoto laughed. "Of course, if we gagged him and put him to sleep . . ."

"No more forced sleep." Green snapped. "Had enough of that with _him_."

"Oh come on, you're still sour about that?" Red sighed.

"Yes."

He didn't even have the decency to actually give Red an actual response.

After exchanging some banter with Waren, the small group made their way to an empty patch of grass somewhere past the market, but close enough so that they could still see the square bustling about with activity.

"The morning is always the busiest time." Kyoto explained, watching a small Minum literally drag itself away from the large herd, squeal something about a berry, and then rush back in.

"Whatever." Green said. "Now tell us what you meant by wild pokemon."

"Always to the point." Red muttered to himself.

"Right, ok." Kyoto nodded, though she rolled her eyes briefly. "Anyway, the pokemon we call wild in this world are basically . . . well, not sentient. In other words, they don't think or feel anything, they just do. They're also unable to speak like us normal pokemon, so that's one reason of explaining why we call them wild. That, and they live in Mystery Dungeons."

"What's a Mystery Dungeon?" Red asked.

"A Mystery Dungeon is a place that defies any sort of laws of physics." Kyoto told them. "I've never been in one myself, so I wouldn't know much, but from what I've heard, they're strange. Mystery Dungeons can pop up anywhere, and have an invisible field that only mechanic pokemon can see, and a few others that aren't. Apparently they can also make you heal a lot faster than what you normally would outside of them, but that also makes you hungrier, a lot faster. That's all I know about them really. Oh, and they have this weird habit of changing each time you go into them as well, so you can't say you know you're way around them each time you go into the same one."

"How do the wild pokemon fit into that?" Red asked again. This whole world was actually really interesting. He could tell Green was interested greatly as well.

"Well, a pokemon born into or trapped in a Mystery Dungeon gets affected by the field." Kyoto explained. "No one actually knows how, but it makes the pokemon lose all sense and they become non-sentient after about two weeks in a Mystery Dungeon. That's why no one stays in them too long, in case that happens."

"That's a bit morbid, don't you think?" Green huffed. "This world is worse than our own."

"Sorry if you're not satisfied, but I'm hooked." Red said absentmindedly. "This place sounds cool and I wanna explore it while we're here."

"Well, that's why we have Exploration Teams." Kyoto smiled, looking over at them. "I can't really tell you much about them, but I do know they search for treasures and stuff like that."

"Sounds cool!" Red grinned. "Can I join one?"

"Uh, well . . ." Kyoto looked away, suddenly bashful. "That's . . . the thing actually. You don't just join one, you need to go through an Academy so you can learn the ropes and all that . . . There's one here, in every town in this region in fact . . ."

"Can we go to this one then?" Red asked, grinning even more. He felt something flick him, and saw it was Green's tail.

"Well, yeah, but the Entrance Exam is kinda hard." Kyoto said, taking a deep breath. "There's two rounds, see? Or parts. Whatever you call them. The first is an Obstacle Course. You have two minutes to complete it, and if you can't do it within that time you fail the test. It's really, really hard to actually do it, mainly because it requires the help of someone else. The next one, if you pass . . . is harder. I actually don't know what it is, so . . . Yeah."

"That sounds fun." Red said. "I wanna do it! How about it, you two? We can take the Exam and pass and be an Exploration Team or something!"

"Uh, well . . . Thing is . . ."

"You've took the test before."

Red stared at Green in shock. How did he even guess anything like that? Surely Kyoto would have told them if she had?

" . . . I did." Kyoto said quietly. "I couldn't get past the first round because I don't have very good balance off the ground. It's something to do with my one arm."

"You're lack of body weight on the left side is most likely what caused that." Green told her, staring at Kyoto like she was a disappointment. "You should have tried to learn how to balance without your second arm, but clearly you didn't. That's why you failed, then."

"Hey, she probably tried her best!" Red cried, glaring at the Eevee. Green stared at him without emotion. "Not like she didn't try, anyway!"

"You're both right." Kyoto said. "I was an idiot for trying because I didn't practise, but I wasn't a coward for trying anyway despite my unbalanced weight."

Green scoffed and looked away. Red glared at him for another second, before turning back to Kyoto.

"So, you took the Entrance Exam?" He asked quietly.

"Yeah, and then failed miserably. The only reason others don't laugh is because my brother is one of the best fighter in town." Kyoto murmured. "But still, at least I tried."

"There's that." Red nodded. "So . . . I'm still thinking about this Exploration thing."

"We could try, but it would take a few days to get you two to actually be able to fight in case you get past the first round." Kyoto said.

"With you? We won't." Green said, rolling onto his back casually.

"Shut up, or I'll shock you." Red snapped. Green muttered something, but went quiet.

"I'd train as well, so I can get my balance perfected." Kyoto said. "Yeah, that's it! Now we have an actual reason to go to the dojo other than meeting Lilac and Blitzen!"

"Awesome!" Red exclaimed.

"And if we do get into the Academy, we can see what it's like." Kyoto smiled. "No one but the Postal Service and the Academy residents are allowed in, and I heard that it's on the cliff over that way, either in the cliff or on it."

Red looked over to his right, and up. Probably a few minutes' walk away was a huge cliff that overlooked the whole of Anchor town, where moss-like greenery was growing lively. It was, again, huge, but no so big that it completely dulled the whole of Anchor town in its shade. Which was probably good since it was warm.

"That looks awesome." Red gasped. "I want to go there. Can we go there?"

"If we pass the Exam, yeah." Kyoto nodded.

"Am I the only one who doesn't care?" Green asked.

"Yes." Kyoto and Red said.

"Whatever."

"Oh come on, you'd love this." Red said. "It's on a cliff!"

"Yeah, I don't like cliffs." Green muttered.

"Why not?" Kyoto asked. "Scared of heights?"

"No. Just uncomfortable with the fact that cliff can drop any second." Green said to them, staring past their heads and into the clouds.

"Did you have a bad experience with one?" Kyoto asked again.

"I was nearly killed by one not ten months ago. Luckily my Charizard saved me, but I'm not going on one even if it'd save my life." Green snapped.

Red paused. No wonder Green didn't like cliffs. If he'd nearly died on one, Red was pretty sure he'd probably hate going near them as well.

"Well, maybe it'll be under the cliff?" Red suggested, trying to get Green to agree to come with them. "Like underground, where it won't hurt if it falls?"

"That'd be . . . a bit better, but still not good enough." Green looked at the cliff, his fur rising unconsciously. "It could fall and suddenly make the underground school thing collapse in on itself."

"The Academy's been here for like, five hundred years." Kyoto said. "And it hasn't fallen."

"_Yet_." Green said. "It hasn't fallen _yet_."

Red sighed and decided to try and different tactic.

"Please, Green?" He begged. "Normally I wouldn't admit this, but it won't be as fun without you!"

" . . . Are you saying you enjoy my company?" Green frowned, staring at Red like he'd grown a second head.

"Yes." Red lied. In truth, he'd much rather be away from Green, but he would probably want to explore stuff with him if he wanted to.

" . . . You know, if it falls down on my head, I'll come back and haunt you." Green said.

"That means you're in?" Kyoto blinked.

"I _suppose_ so." Green mumbled.

Red and Kyoto cheered, gaining a few looks from some of the pokemon who were walking around outside of the chaotic square.

And then, as they got up to go back to Infinity bar, Red realised that they had somehow turned Kyoto's embarrassing defeat at the Entrance Exam into something they could all look forward to if they ever wanted to take it.

He grinned, and did a tiny dance, earning him a flat look from Green and a whip on the head with his tail. Red decided to stay as far away as he could from that new tail of Green's since he was now gaining actual usage of it.

**OOOOOO**

Renny: A bit shorter, but it's nice and well . . . gets things done and stuff.

Red: Did you plan the last part?

Renny: Yeah. And the fact that they're gonna train at the dojo to take the Entrance Exam.

Green: You made me scared of cliffs?

Renny: Not scared, uncomfortable around then. Almost dying on one does that to a person.

Green: . . . I'll let you off this time.

Renny: 'K. Read, review and comment!


	5. Chapter 4- The dojo

Renny: Another Green chapter!

Red: So it's basically taking it in turns then?

Renny: Pretty much. I haven't read the reviews, if there even are any, for the last chapter so sorry if I don't reply to anyone in this bit here.

Green: They don't care.

Renny: I know, this is more for me than them . . .

Red: Um, should we do the disclaimer?

Renny: Yeah.

Red: Renny doesn't own pokemon.

Renny: On with the show . . .

**OOOOOO**

**-Near the dojo-**

Green didn't want anything to do with the _cliff_. Much less anything to do with the stupid Academy that probably taught pokemon how to fight or something. He didn't know. He wasn't listening when Red and Kyoto somehow managed to convince him to join then in some Team thing, and again when they were chatting about it and other stuff. Whatever it was.

He didn't care or even want to know. Going near a _cliff_ was something he had sworn to himself he would never, ever do again. For the exact reasons he told Red and Kyoto as well. For once he hadn't been lying about his experiences.

The only thing he did lie about, however, was how much he hated them. He wasn't uncomfortable. He wasn't afraid. He was completely terrified. Going near one had resulted in a huge breakdown every single time he tried, and he had no idea why.

Normally when one fell off a _cliff_ because it collapsed, and when they lived somehow, they would look at a _cliff _and be scared, but not enough so that they wouldn't go near one ever again. Green supposed it was because he was still a child, and a child's mind is more . . . prone to permanent fears. Like his. Even though Green knew it was stupid to be scared of a _cliff_ just because he nearly died on literally just _one_ of the things, his mind refused to let him see the logic in the fact that _he had nothing to fear of any others_.

Of course, that was impossible, because Green's own mind was a mystery to even Green himself. Thus, he had gained a massive fear of _cliffs_ as a result of his own mind being weird again, and became unable to go near even one of the things. Somewhere in his mind he hoped to Mew that maybe the Academy wasn't even by the _cliff_, that it was a lie made up to protect it or something.

And somewhere else, he hoped, that for everyone's sake, it was on one so he could get over his irrational fears.

"We're almost to the dojo." Kyoto called to them. Red was walking a little ahead of Green, but not enough so that they couldn't talk to each other. Kyoto was a couple of feet in front of the two.

"Awesome." Red whispered, wiggling in his excitement. Green's long ears lowered down, unconsciously somehow, and he quickly righted them before anyone could notice.

"I suppose there's still no way of getting out of this." Green mumbled.

"Nope. You agreed, so you're coming as well." Red grinned at him. "Kyoto said that if we can pass the Exam, we can be a real Team and train at the Academy, and then we can do the stuff that they do."

"She didn't say what the Teams did?"

"She doesn't know." Red shrugged. "Her brother's never been on one because he likes his bar thing, even if he is fully evolved, and the dojo was obviously never the place for her after she failed the Exam first time round."

"How do you know she won't fail again, and drag us with her?" Green asked, giving the larger pokemon (Eevee were generally small pokemon, that was his defence) a flat look.

"With us there, she won't." Red punched his fist (paw?) happily, grinning mischievously.

"I know that look." Green sighed. "You have yet another _brilliant_ idea."

"Hey, my ideas are awesome!"

"Last time we got shoved into another world. Literally." Green said flatly.

"I know, but still. All we gotta do with this one is help Kyoto with her balance as best as we can." Red said. "You know, since _we_ have all our limbs and stuff."

"It's the least we could do for her, but why do we need to get into the Academy as well?" Green asked.

"Don't you get it? If we get into one of the Teams, we can learn more about this world and what the Ninetales expect us to do!" Red cried.

"That-" Sounded smarter than what Green gave Red credit for. "Oh fine."

"Thanks."

Green didn't know why Red was thanking him or anything, but the thought soon dropped out of his head as soon as they came up to the dojo. It looked remarkably similar to the one that his old Master Chuck had, complete with the trees at the front and the open door that never actually closed, and the whole 'this place looks like a ninja den' theme.

"Wow." Red gasped. Green didn't see what was so special.

"This is the dojo." Kyoto said. "There're a lot of rooms, but the main ones are the training room, the fighting arena, and the rest room. The training room is used for training only and occasionally random battles, and the fighting arena is for pokemon wanting to either have a spar with other pokemon in a maze or something, or for pokemon to take the Entrance Exam. The rest room speaks for itself."

"I wanna go in!" Red cried.

He was being overexcited, but Green couldn't help but feel as though this place was a complete replica of his old Master Chuck's dojo. It had the same build, the same rooms, and probably a few more to boot. Who knows, maybe this place even had a secret room like the other dojo did?

"Well come on then!" Kyoto grinned at them. She walked in quickly, and Red followed soon after.

Green hesitated for a second, before running in after them. He didn't want to get left behind after all. The layout might actually be different.

**oooo**

**-Inside the dojo-**

It wasn't different. The entire dojo here was the same as Master Chuck's dojo, layout and all. Even the torches where in the same places! That meant that Green could easily navigate the place, but he pretended he'd never actually seen a place like this because Kyoto was having so much fun explaining where stuff was.

"This is the rest room, like I said. Over there's one of the guest rooms, where pokemon who want to get up early and train stay until they want to leave, or until they take the Entrance Exam and either fail or pass." Kyoto said. The look in her eyes was bright, as if she was actually enjoying herself, despite how she had expressed her failure to complete the Exam when she'd last been here.

"Over that way is the back room, where . . . well I dunno, I've never been in there. My guess is it's where the pokemon who passed the Entrance Exam go, so they can register themselves in the actual place. That way is the training room, and this room here is the fighting arena." Kyoto went on.

"I love this place already." Red said, awe struck.

Red had no idea how much this place meant to Green. Even if the place wasn't the same thing as the other one. This whole 'two dojos look alike' thing was getting stupid, so Green decided to refer to this dojo as the pokemon dojo and the other one as Chuck's dojo, so his weird mind wouldn't get confused.

"No opinion?" Kyoto asked. It took Green a few second to realise she was talking to him.

"Not really. Not very impressive." Green replied. If his old Master had heard him say that, he'd be dunked by now.

"Oh, I was hoping it'd impress you of all pokemon . . ." Kyoto sighed. "Oh well, there's disappointments for everyone I suppose. You wanna go into the training room? We can see if anyone's there, and train with them."

"Definitely!" Red nodded eagerly, and though Green didn't show it, he was eager as well.

Kyoto took them to a room which had a label on it in a strange language that looked like footprints.

"What does that say?" Red asked, pointing to it. At least Green wasn't the only one who couldn't read it.

"What do you mean? It says 'training room', clearly." Kyoto said. "Can you not- Wait a second . . . Humans don't have Footprint Runes, do they?"

"I've never heard of them." Green shook his head, frowning at the strange 'letters'.

"This is what pokemon use to write with. Basically, it's our alphabet, and stuff. Since you two used to be people . . . I'd guess you know Unown script better."

"Unown?" Red blinked.

"She means what we write." Green hissed. "You know, like A, B, C, and D?"

"Oh yeah. We just call them letters." Red said.

"We call our Footprint Runes letters as well." Kyoto said, turning back to the door. "So, if you two can't read Footprint Runes, I'd guess that makes you illiterate or something."

Green knew he wasn't good at reading or writing, despite the huge and complicated words he occasionally used to confuse Red, but even he was offended at being called _illiterate_.

"Hey, I'm not illiterate!" It seemed Red wasn't happy either.

"Maybe not in your world, but in this one? You're both illiterate." Kyoto grinned at them. Green sent her a withering glare that made her hasten her attempts to open the door.

Once they were inside of the room, the first thing they noticed was that it was huge, and bare. There was a single bench in the corner of the room, near the door where they'd come into, and the walls were plain and pale coloured.

The second thing they noticed was that two pokemon were fighting in the middle of the huge room.

One was a Raichu with an extremely long tail and blue eyes. It wore a blue scarf around his neck, and it looked as though there was something embedded onto it, but the Raichu was moving too fast for it to be seen. The second was a pokemon that was flying in the air, one that Green was overly familiar with, but it looked different. It seemed like it was a Charizard with silver under-wings instead of blue, and blunt claws that almost looked like a three-fingered hand.

The two were attacking each other, the Raichu sending huge bolts of lightning at the Charizard, and the Charizard sending huge blasts of fire back at the Raichu in response.

"Come on!" The Raichu cried. It seemed to be male. "That all you got, lizard?"

"Careful what you taunt." The Charizard, apparently male as well, called back. "You might actually get an actual attack."

"I have the advantage!"

"I've defeated Kyogre."

"Pah, that thing? That's nothing compared to-"

"Hello!?" Kyoto called to them.

Both pokemon paused in their argument (though it may have been one sided by how calm the Charizard looked) and looked over at the door. Green shrunk down as their gaze rested upon them, just _feeling_ the sheer power in both. It seemed as though Red felt it as well.

"Kyoto? That you?" The Raichu asked.

"How many other Combusken do you know with one arm?" Kyoto laughed.

"Well, I met a one-armed Meowth once, but he evolved into a three-legged Persian." The Raichu smirked. "And then I met-"

"We get it." The Charizard waved his blunt clawed hand about. "Anyway, Kyoto! Welcome back, and may I say, you look sharper than before. Have you done something with your feathers?"

"I preened them, but lately I haven't had much of a chance." Kyoto said. "Been looking after these two."

"Ah, now that's a rare sight." The Charizard smiled, looking at Red and Green. "An Eevee and a Pikachu."

"Hey, me and Lilac were once those you know!" The Raichu grinned. "You two are gonna go far when you evolve!"

"The word should be if." The Charizard rolled his eyes.

"That's what I said."

Again the Charizard rolled his eyes, but turned back to Kyoto.

"Who are they, may I ask?" He rumbled to her. "To be in the presence of strange pokemon, I must know their names at least."

"The Pikachu is Red, and the Eevee is Green." Kyoto told them. "And . . . They're both humans."

Green paused. Telling two random pokemon that he and Red were humans wasn't something you did. Red didn't think so either.

"Uh, should you be saying that to them?" Red asked.

"They'll fit right in with Lilac and Irene." The Raichu grinned.

"Wait, Irene?" Green frowned. He looked up at Kyoto. "You didn't say that there were two human-pokemon besides us."

"Uh, I didn't know about Irene." Kyoto murmured. "They never talked about her . . ."

"Irene is my partner." The Charizard said. "And Lilac is Blitzen's."

"Blitzen?" Red blinked. "Isn't he the pokemon Psycho told us about?"

"That's me." The Raichu pointed to himself proudly. "Name's Blitzen, and I'm the partner of the third human-turned-pokemon."

"And my name is Beta." The Charizard said. "I'm aware it's a strange name, but I like it."

"I've never actually seen you before, Beta." Kyoto said, bringing her clawed hand to her chin. Or what could have been her chin.

"I wasn't exactly keen on making myself known." Beta shrugged. "But anyway, you'll meet Lilac in a while."

"She's gone off to find some Sitrus berries from Eon wares." Blitzen said to the group. "She'll be back soon, so . . . anyone wanna mock-fight?"

"Not everyone wants to battle you." Beta told the Raichu.

"I wanna battle him!" Red cried, rushing forwards.

"Sweet!" Blitzen grinned.

"Big mistake!" Kyoto shouted to Red. He didn't listen, and he and Blitzen stood a few feet apart from each other.

"What do you wanna do then?" Blitzen asked. "Fight, or not?"

"I'm fighting!" Red yelled, spreading his legs apart and moving his arms out into a fighting position.

"We only practised against trees." Green called to him.

"I'll be fine!" The Pikachu shouted back.

"No you won't." Blitzen smirked. He dropped down to all fours, and his cheeks sparked with electricity. Blitzen's long tail swung about behind him.

"Com at me!" Red cried.

"He's not very smart, is he?" Beta asked, flying up to Kyoto and Green.

Green sighed and sat down, staring at Red and Blitzen with a blank look.

"Doesn't seem like it. Green knows him better than I do, though." Kyoto said.

"Not really," Green mumbled. "We're not friends. We're rivals."

" . . . Ah the old rivalries." Beta smiled. "I once had one with a dumb Team who called themselves Team Meanies."

"How could they do anything with that sort of name?" Kyoto frowned.

"Were the retarded?" Green asked him.

"I'm not sure." Beta smiled. "Their leader was a Gengar by the name of Marc. He used to be a human until he was cursed by a Ninetales."

"We got shoved into this place by a Ninetales." Green muttered.

There was a burst of lightning, and suddenly Red was flung against the wall beside them. He slid down and groaned.

"Ouch . . ." He mumbled.

"I take it you lost." Beta chuckled.

"Yep. He's tough. Wicked tough." Red said, sitting up.

"He's around level 80." Beta told him, going back over to Blitzen.

"L-level 80!?" Red yelled. He jumped up and spun to Kyoto. "Did you know that!?"

"Yeah." Kyoto nodded, barely containing a laugh. Green had to stop his own laugh as well.

"Why did he let me challenge him if he's like, way stronger than me!?" Red cried.

"Because I wanted to challenge you." Blitzen said. He'd walked up in the time that Red had spent panicking, and was now standing a few feet away from them. "I wanted to see if you wanted to back down."

There was a sudden chill, like a winter blast had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"He didn't do a good job of it." A new voice said coldly.

Green looked behind him and saw a Vaporeon with icy eyes staring at them through the door, which was being held open by an Aggron. The Vaporeon walked through, brushing past Green. He felt another chill, as if the water type was the spirit of ice itself, and the Aggron silently followed her.

"Hmph." The Vaporeon stared at Red with a cold gaze, and then turned to Blitzen. "Why is this child in here?"

"Hey, we were kids once as well." Blitzen shrugged. "'Sides, I didn't bring him in. Kyoto did."

"Kyoto? You're back then." The Vaporeon said, glancing at Kyoto.

"Uh, y-yeah." Kyoto murmured.

Clearly this Vaporeon held some sort of authority over everyone, and was deeply respected, by all except for Blitzen it seemed.

"I am Lilac." The Vaporeon told them. It seemed as though she was speaking to Red and Green, yet she had turned around.

The Aggron looked down at Green, and blinked slowly.

"HELLO." It said. "LILAC HAS NAMED ME ACRYLIC. WHAT IS YOUR NAME, EEVEE?"

"G-Green." He squeaked. The Aggron seemed even more imposing than Lilac.

"Hah, you're scared." Red smirked. Lilac turned to him and he shut up instantly.

"If Acrylic chose to spoke to you, then he has deemed you as a worthy pokemon." She told Red, glaring. "He spoke to the Eevee, therefore he sees her as a worthy pokemon. Unlike you."

"I BELIVE THE EEVEE IS MALE." Acrylic said, slowly turning around.

"My apologies." Lilac said to Green. She bowed her head a little. "It's hard to tell, what with all our fur."

"Our?" Green echoed, still staring at the huge Aggron.

"Vaporeon evolves from Eevee." Beta said. "Didn't you know?"

"Uh, yeah, I did." But he'd forgotten because seriously, having an Aggron stare at you and then talk to you was scary. Green could admit that freely.

"Dude, Lilac just apologised to you!" Blitzen cried, grinning again. "That's something you should feel proud of!"

"Why?" Red asked.

"I don't apologise very often." Lilac said, turning around and going over to Blitzen. "When I do, it's because I feel I can."

"Ok . . ." Green mumbled.

"Um, not to sound disrespectful or anything, but can we get back to what we were doing?" Kyoto asked Beta.

"What were we doing?" Red frowned.

"Discussing you getting your butt kicked by Blitzen." Green told him lightly. He was still reeling from the Aggron.

"IT APPEARS AS THOUGH YOU HAVE TROUBLE DECIDING ON WHAT TO DO." Acrylic rumbled. "MAY I SUGGEST HAVING A DEMONSTRATION?"

"A demonstration of what?" Red wondered.

"I have an idea." Beta said. He whispered something to Lilac, and her eyes widened a fraction. The Charizard straightened up and looked over at Red and Green. "We can tell you, and maybe show you, some stuff about pokemon anatomy."

"You are both humans." Lilac breathed. She sounded stunned.

"Yeah." Red nodded, getting up.

Acrylic stood next to Lilac, staring at Red and Green impassively.

"Well, if that is indeed the case . . . You'll both need lessons on pokemon." The Vaporeon said.

"We know pokemon perfectly fine!" Red snapped at her. "We're not a couple of little kids who-"

Suddenly a Water Pulse hit him square in the face, and Red was flung back against the same wall as before. Lilac got up from her crouched position, and Green noticed some water dripping from her mouth.

"First lesson: don't assume you know everything about pokemon." Lilac said. "I was once a Trainer as well, so I know how much the two of you know. However, being a pokemon has also changed how I see them. Pokemon have different abilities, and different anatomies. Understanding each one, or as many as you can, will help when you battle."

"I think I can understand." Green told her. "We learn about the pokemon and how it works, and we can counter it even if we have a disadvantage. Right?"

"THE EEVEE IS SMART." Acrylic said. "SHAME HE IS NOT ON OUR OWN TEAM."

"We already have like, ten pokemon with us." Blitzen shrugged. "I think that's about as many as we can get without it going overboard."

"Clearly." Lilac murmured.

"Hey, gimme a warning next time!" Red cried, standing back up. His cheeks sparked, and Green took a step away from him.

"If you knew about pokemon anatomy and such, you would have seen the Water Pulse coming." Lilac told him coldly. "Why can't you be like your friend and see the point in this?"

"He's not my friend!" Red snapped at her.

Lilac shot another Water Pulse at him, but this time Green saw a small change in her posture before she did so. She crouched slightly, and her mouth opened so fast it was like someone had missed a few frames on an animation. The Water Pulse snapped out a split second later, but no one saw it coming. Red was blasted back into the wall, and he groaned again.

"Now, answer me." Lilac sat down. "Tell me, Green or Kyoto, if either of you saw anything that could have been a warning to show I was going to use Water Pulse."

"Uhh . . ." Kyoto's claws fiddled in the air as if there was meant to be another set there as well, but she didn't reply. Looked like she had no idea.

"I think . . . I saw it." Green mumbled.

"Go on." Lilac nodded to him as Red struggled to get back up.

"Well . . . Before you shot it off, you crouched a bit." He said. "And then your mouth shot open fast and the Water Pulse came out after. It was too fast to see if the Water Pulse was built up, but the crouching was slow enough so you could see it but still not have enough time to react."

"Very good." Lilac looked impressed, which Green guessed was a rare thing as well. "He's right, little Pikachu. For projectile, or special attacks, you can watch out for a pokemon's body posture changing slightly."

"So, if I'd seen you crouch, I could have avoided it?" Red breathed. "Oh."

"Now do you see the value of these lessons?" Lilac asked.

"Kinda." The Pikachu nodded.

"Good."

"Hey, we still haven't introduced you all yet!" Blitzen cried. "Lilac, the Pikachu is Red and the Eevee is Green. Ok, introductions all gone!"

"Is he hyper or something?" Kyoto asked.

"MAYBE." Acrylic said, glancing down at the Raichu briefly.

"We could continue with the lesson, or we can chat like a bunch of old Murkrow." Lilac cut in.

"You lot get back to lessons and all that." Beta said, waving. "I'll go and find my partner."

"See you tomorrow!" Blitzen called as the huge Charizard walked out the door.

Lilac called them all to attention again, and the group went back to the lessons.

**OOOOOO**

Renny: This took a while . . . Anyway, info about the Charizard. His actual name is Blaize, but since the name was based from _Heart of the Storm_, I couldn't use it, so I called him Beta instead. The Vaporeon is who I play on _PKMD Explorers of the Sky, _and the Raichu is my partner. And yes, Acrylic the Aggron is in that team, along with another pokemon.

Red: This was a sort of long chapter.

Renny: Pretty sure it was shorter than at least one of them somewhere.

Red: Or not. It could have been the longest one.

Renny: Yeah, whatever. Hey, let's see if I can get 4000 words.

Red: Um, right, ok?

Renny: That barely added! Read, review and comment!

Red: Really, Renny?

Renny: Yes. OMG 4000 WORDS! Or over now.


	6. Chapter 5- Obstacle Course

Renny: Fourth . . . fifth . . . uh . . . which one is this?

Green: Fifth.

Renny: Thanks. Anyway, welcome to the fifth chapter of Rising Cain! Who's POV is it again?

Red: Mine.

Renny: Thanks again.

Green: You seem spacey all of a sudden.

Renny: I'm trying to come up with an actual plot other than the 'do what you want and don't die' thing the Ninetales said. And also new characters. It's making me forget other stuff, but at least I don't have any school for five or six weeks!

Green: There is that.

Renny: Anyway, since it's Red's POV, that means it's Green's turn for the disclaimer.

Green: Renny doesn't own pokemon!

Renny: On with the show!

**OOOOOO**

**-Infinity bar, room-**

Red collapsed, exhausted, onto the hay bed (which was rapidly becoming a comfort). He sighed and felt, rather than saw, Green thump onto the one next to his, and then wiggle around to get comfortable.

Kyoto staggered into the room a couple of seconds later, laughing her tail feathers off.

"I can't believe you did it!" She gasped, trying to sit down.

"I know." Red sighed, covering his face. "She still beat me down though."

"Well, it was very impressive." Green said, his voice muffled by the hay. Red glanced up in surprise.

"Did you just compliment me?" He asked.

"Yeah." Green yawned, looking up. "Like I said, impressive. You managed to deal some damage to Lilac, even though she's like . . . level 77 or something. That is actually impressive."

"He does have the advantage though." Kyoto, now sitting down and not laughing, pointed out. "So of course he'd be able to do some damage."

"Still!" Red cried. "I done something to her . . . until she used her Water Pulse again."

"You should really try to remember how she moves before she uses it." Green said, closing his eyes.

"Hey, she moves way to fast!" Red sighed, putting a paw over his face. "How am I meant to see her coming if she does that?"

"Look carefully."

"That's your job."

"One day, I will not be with you to do that. Learn on your own." Green told him, cracking open a single eye.

"That sounds like you're gonna die soon." Kyoto stated, frowning.

"Hey, who knows? It's not uncommon." Green shrugged.

"Don't be so negative." Red laughed.

It had been several days since they'd first gone into the dojo. Red had learnt to control his random electrical discharges from Blitzen in case another 'zapping the tree' incident happened, and Green learnt how to use Dig from Lilac, who actually knew the move still. Beta helped out Kyoto with her Ember, but Red didn't listen to his lessons because he wasn't a fire type.

Green, however, listened with almost scary interest. Red still had yet to figure out how his rival's head worked, if only so that they could work together without snapping at each other when one made a mistake.

Red was also working on becoming friends with Green as well. Kyoto was easy enough, because she was a friend to start off with. Green was difficult though.

And on top of it all, Red and Green were helping Kyoto with her balance, like they'd 'agreed' to do. So far she could walk on steel beams without much trouble, but she was still in danger of tripping off the beam if she put a clawed foot wrong. But she was getting better, and Green had almost stopped saying they would fail whenever they took the test.

"Hey, when do you think we can take the test?" Red asked.

"Anytime we want to." Kyoto replied. "But there are some rules for it."

"How come you didn't say before?" Green snapped.

"Because you didn't ask."

Green grumbled something, but waited for her to carry on.

"Anyway, there are some rules, but most are gonna be explained by Lilac and Blitzen when we take the Exam." Kyoto told the two pokemon. "Some aren't actually explained, so I'll tell you now so that we don't make the same mistakes I've seen others make. First up, the Team rule. You can either go in alone or in a group, but the maximum is four and that's that. Anymore pokemon and you're out if you refuse to split.

"Second, the way you try to move as a group, if you're in one. There must be a leader, even if you work better as a democracy group or something. That's basically all of them, everything else will be explained on the day." Kyoto finished.

"Well, it sounds cool." Red grinned. "We've got three . . . but we need a leader."

"I volunteer." Green said.

"Not you." Red frowned. "You're too . . . I dunno."

"Way to obsessive with perfection." Kyoto completed.

"Yeah, that."

"Oh, yay, I'm a perfectionist and I can't be leader." Green grumbled.

"Don't take it personally." Red waved his paw around.

"Oh, I'll take it personally alright. _Very_ personally." Green hissed.

Red and Kyoto stared at him for a few seconds. Then promptly burst into laughter.

"It's hard to take your threats seriously when you look so adorable." Kyoto giggled.

"Eevee aren't meant to be threatening!" Red grinned. "If you were human or something, it would work, but you're an Eevee!"

"Thank you so much. I feel loved." Green huffed, turning away from them and settling down.

Red and Kyoto stopped laughing eventually, and glanced at each other.

"Well, maybe you could be like . . . an advisor or something?" The one-armed Combusken suggested.

"For one day? No thank you." Green snapped. He didn't turn around.

"Oh come on!" Red exclaimed. "You're gonna be grumpy just because you can't be leader?"

"That's not it."

"Then what?" Kyoto asked him.

"You two can't take me seriously!" Green suddenly cried, jumping up and glaring at them. "Over the past few days, every time I get mad or come up with an idea or something, neither of you take me seriously! That's why I'm 'grumpy'!"

"Hey, we'll try to take you seriously." Red tried to calm him down.

"Oh? I'd like to see you try." Green spat. The Eevee got off his hay bed and started dragging it across the room, away from both of them. "I refuse to sleep near you two."

"Don't be like this!" Kyoto whined. "Green, we're sorry!"

"Hmph." Green lay down again, with his back to the two pokemon.

"Well, that went downhill fast." Kyoto muttered, looking down at Red.

"I know." The Pikachu mumbled. "Sometimes it's like . . . I can actually understand what goes on in that head of his, but then he goes and does something like this . . ."

"He hides his feelings." Kyoto said, glancing briefly at Green. "That's why we can't understand him. He's to guarded."

"Way to guarded." Red nodded. "But I don't know why . . . The only I actually learnt about him over the past few days is that he loves those gummi things you gave us, and he hates cliffs with a passion."

"Maybe if we try to be more . . . friendly with him." Kyoto murmured.

"No, he'd probably use Dig on us." Red sighed.

"Hmm . . . Do you know what his personality is?" Kyoto asked.

"Uh . . . Well, the Ninetales who turned us into pokemon said he was 'serious and yet naïve' if that counts." Red told her.

"Not really." Kyoto rolled her eyes. "I mean, like . . . what does he do when he's alone, what sort of stuff is he scared of, and such."

"We know he's scared of cliffs." Red said.

"Yes, I know that."

They talked for a long time, until Green snapped at them to shut up. It was almost night time, so they tried to get to sleep, but Red couldn't even if he wanted to.

_When we're ready, _he thought, _we can take the Entrance Exam. Green's fine with it now, but if the school is actually somewhere near that cliff Kyoto told us about, he'll refuse to go._

Red had sort of figured out that Green wasn't actually uncomfortable with cliffs at all. He was scared of them, in fact. Red knew the feeling of being uncomfortable, and the way Green acted around a cliff, even when it was far away, was too weird to be called that. So Red had figured out at least one of Green's fears.

But it didn't help in understanding the boy-turned-Eevee any better. Red had also found out, a few days ago, that Green loved the gummies that Kyoto brought them from her brother's storage, especially the white ones.

Again, not much help. Red smiled a little. It was silly how much he and Kyoto were worrying about what to do with Green when it was night time, and in the day time they were more concerned about training for the Exam.

With that thought in his head, Red drifted off peacefully.

**oooo**

**-Next morning, the dojo-**

That morning, Lilac seemed to be in a different mood. She seemed a bit more cheerful, or as cheerful as she could get, and was happy (sort of) to give the little group of three breaks every half hour, instead of driving them to the bone like the other days.

"She's gonna be testing some new recruits for the academy today." Blitzen explained when they asked.

"Really? Can we watch?" Red asked eagerly.

"You're only allowed to watch the first part." Beta, who was visiting again from Mew knows where, said. "The second part is secret, so you're not allowed to see it."

"Fine by me." Kyoto shrugged. "These two haven't seen the obstacle course in action yet."

"They're in for a shock then." Blitzen smirked.

Despite being excited, Red exchanged a small and confused glance with Green.

A few minutes later, Blitzen and Beta took Red, Green and Kyoto to the fighting arena. Red had only been in here once before, when Blitzen wanted to show them how fast a Raichu could run across water without falling into it.

When you walked into the fighting arena, you were inside of a box-like room that had transparent and indestructible walls so you could see into the room. There was a door opposite the one used to walk in, so that the pokemon taking the Exam could go through. There were also some controls that set off the whole room as well.

There was a huge lake/pond/pool in the middle of the arena, with several iron beams that were hanging down from the ceiling by some more iron beams, but those ones were thinner. Kyoto had explained that they were close to the ground so that pokemon who couldn't fly could jump on and off easily without breaking their bones.

Under each one of the beams there was a net, which Red assumed was for safety in case someone fell off. Around the corners of the arena were some blunt spikes (they wouldn't make you bleed if they hit you), which Blitzen explained were used for seeing how resourceful a pokemon could be when faced with the spikes as well as trying not to fall off the beams and not drowning if Lilac wanted the pokemon taking the Exam to swim. The only way you could get out of swimming was if you were a pokemon who literally couldn't get fully submerged in water.

There was also a maze, which was in between the iron beams and the spikes, and some wooden beams were set up so that pokemon could ram them to break them. If you couldn't break the wooden beams, you had to find some other way of getting over them without jumping out of the maze and going around.

On a normal perspective, it seemed simple the way Kyoto had described it.

First, you had to go into the maze and get through it, breaking all the wooden beams. Then you had to jump up when you got to the end of the maze, while avoiding the spikes, and get onto the iron beams and run across them while avoiding the spikes again. Then, when you reached the end of the beams and jumped down, you had to swim across the pool and get to the stairs on the other side and push a button, which would make the spikes stop shooting.

For pokemon who couldn't swim, like Kyoto, they were given a raft and forced to paddle through the water.

But it was probably a lot harder than it looked, because Kyoto hadn't even gotten past the iron beams.

"How many pokemon today?" Blitzen asked.

"Two teams." Lilac replied. She was sitting at the controls, and was watching a few pokemon in the arena talk to each other. "A Vulpix and Eevee in one, and a Bulbasaur and Charmander in the other. All four are going to register themselves into the same Team if they all pass."

"Sounds cool, but why aren't they all in the same team here?" Beta asked, looking out at the four pokemon. "There's only four of them."

"They say they work better in smaller groups." Lilac said. "I'm not questioning it."

She lifted her tail up and tapped the see-through walls. The four pokemon inside the arena looked up.

"Attention!" Lilac called. It took Red a few seconds to realise she was talking through a microphone. "Talon and Dante, please step out of the arena. Val and Night, you may get ready."

The Bulbasaur and Charmander made their way out of the arena as instructed, and settled down next to Red, Green and Kyoto.

"Hey." The Charmander smiled, as Lilac started explaining the rules to the two left inside. "My name's Talon."

The Bulbasaur sighed. "I'm Dante. He's called himself Talon because he doesn't like his real name."

"True." The Charmander, Talon, nodded.

"What's your real name?" Kyoto asked curiously.

"Not telling." Talon smiled again.

"I'm Red, this is Green, and that's Kyoto." Red said, pointing at each pokemon in turn. "Nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you three as well." Dante nodded, as Talon fiddled with his tail flame.

"Isn't that dangerous?" Red swallowed, backing away from the flickering fire.

"It's not. Charmander tail fire is pure light, and that's all. It can be used as a weapon, but it won't burn unless he's angry or something. Which rarely happens." Dante explained.

"Oh, cool!" Red grinned. "Can I touch it?"

"Go ahead." Talon laughed, offering the tail to Red.

Red put his paw through the fire, but only felt pleasant warmth. It didn't burn like it did in his own world, so that was something Red was happy about.

"It feels so nice . . ." He whispered, changing the grin into a soft smile. "I just wanna keep my hand there forever . . ."

"Even I like it, and I'm a grass type." Dante told them.

"Then Kyoto would love it!" Red exclaimed. "Hey, Kyoto, touch Talon's fire!"

Kyoto didn't answer. She was sitting almost bolt upright, staring at the Vulpix and Eevee as they went through the obstacle course.

"Kyoto?" Red called gently.

"Huh? What?" The fire type looked down as if she had been daydreaming.

"Are you alright?"

Even Green was looking at her with a frown. Red couldn't tell if he was worried or not, but he didn't care right now.

"Yeah, fine. Just . . . wondering what it'll be like to go through it again." Kyoto murmured.

"You'll do fine." Red smiled.

"She's already done this?" Dante blinked. "I was told that once you did it and failed, you couldn't do it again."

"That's just a rumour, little plant." Beta said, leaning down so he could talk to all five of them. "The first round is simple compared to the second. If anything, the second one is the one you need to worry about."

"Giving away secrets?" Blitzen chuckled, looking over. "I'm shocked, I never took you for a tattle-tale."

"I am not a tattle-tale." Beta huffed out some smoke, which hit Blitzen in the face. The Raichu wasn't even fazed.

"Sure, and my Uncle's an Ambipom." Blitzen rolled his eyes.

"Your Uncle _is_ an Ambipom."

Blitzen paused, his mouth turning into a small line. " . . . Dang it." He sighed.

Kyoto laughed at the exchange.

"Hey, she's back to normal!" Red cried happily.

"Oi, no need to act like I'm being weird." Kyoto scoffed, tapping the Pikachu with her claws. "I was just worried I'd fail again."

"You're almost fully evolved." Talon told her. "I see no way in which you can lose in this."

"I have one arm."

" . . . Unless you don't have balance, but I'm sure you've been practising." Talon smiled a little.

"I have . . ." Kyoto murmured.

"There you go then." Dante nodded to her. "You've been practising balancing with one arm, so you can now go through this without much worry. These two are on your team, right?"

"Yeah, we are." Red nodded.

"Well, they can help you." The Bulbasaur said. "Who's your leader for this, anyway?"

"We . . . haven't decided yet." Red told him, glancing at Green before looking away again.

"You'd better decide before you take the Exam." Beta looked down at them. "Otherwise you can't take it at all."

"We still can't decide." Kyoto sighed.

"Have you ruled anyone out?" Talon asked.

"Green." Red said immediately. He felt a small whack on his head, but ignored it. "He's a perfectionist and isn't really good for a leader, so . . . we decided that he's out."

"I hate both of you." Green hissed. Red tried to ignore him as best he could.

"What about you two?" Dante nodded to both Red and Kyoto, who exchanged glances.

"We don't know." Kyoto said for both of them.

"How about if you let Lilac decide?" Blitzen suggested.

"What are you talking about now?" Said Vaporeon snarled, looking away from the arena.

"We want you to decide who can be the leader for the Exam for these three." Blitzen told her. "Green's not allowed though, so only Red or Kyoto."

"_I hate you all_." Green said loudly.

"Hmm . . . Kyoto." Lilac said. She went back to looking into the arena.

"That's it?" Red demanded. "No reason, or anything?"

"She doesn't give reasons." Beta smiled, shaking his head fondly. "She can make decisions in split seconds and not have any reason, or she does and she doesn't tell us."

"I'm the leader?" Kyoto said in shock. "W-why?"

"I think I know." Blitzen said, with a glance at Talon and Dante. "You have more experience than Red and Green. You're also more powerful, and you don't let yourself get clouded in times of need."

"Well, most of the time." Beta laughed.

"Oh." Kyoto blinked. "Those are pretty good reasons . . . Do you think I can do it?"

"Yes!" Red cried, nodding quickly.

"I don't even know you, and I know you can do it." Dante smiled.

"Go for it." Talon said.

" . . ." Green didn't say anything, except for a tiny growl. Red rolled his eyes and ignored the Eevee again.

"Aw, thanks!" Kyoto laughed.

"Beta, go get Val and Night." Lilac suddenly commanded. "They're done."

"Did they pass?" The Charizard asked.

"Yes, now they just have to wait for Dante and Talon, and they can all go to the second round together." Lilac said. "Now go get them."

Beta nodded and wormed his way through the door, and then flew off to the other side of the room to where the Vulpix and Eevee were sitting near a huge red button.

"Good luck." Kyoto told Talon and Dante, as they got up.

"Thanks." Talon nodded. Dante waved a vine and they walked through just as Beta and the two pokemon who had just taken the first part of the Exam came into the room.

"Hello!" The Vulpix, obviously female, cried, bounding up to Red, Green and Kyoto. "I'm Val. My friend here is called Night!"

The Eevee said nothing, just waved its tail in greeting.

"She's mute." Val said immediately. "But don't let that make you think she's useless. She's really strong, even for a normal type!"

The Eevee, named Night for some reason, nodded and smiled.

"Mute, huh?" Beta murmured. "You don't see many pokemon like that. Just blind or deaf."

"Oh, really?" Val blinked.

Even though Val was acting like a ditzy teenage girl, Red could tell she was smart. Maybe even smarter than Green was meant to be.

"Hi, I'm Red!" He quickly introduced himself and his group.

"You all have such cute names." Val grinned. Night nodded beside her, wagging her tail excitedly. "Green suits you, little Eevee!"

Green appeared to be blushing, but it was hard to tell with all his fur.

"Um, thanks . . ." He mumbled quietly, scraping the floor a little.

"And Red seems like a powerful name!" Val exclaimed, looking at Red.

"Hehe, thanks!" Red grinned back at her.

"I just love Kyoto!" Val squealed, jumping around and somehow getting to Kyoto's height in doing so. "I wish my parents were as imaginative as yours; since they called me Val. Val the Vulpix, imagine that!"

"Well, I don't have to." Kyoto laughed. "You're right in front of me."

"I know, right!?"

After a few more minutes of Val's endless chatter, Talon and Dante finally got through the first part of the Exam as well. They came back into the room and settled down to wait for Lilac and Blitzen, who had walked off to go find someone.

"So, when can we see you three taking the Exam?" Dante asked.

"Soon." Red promised.

"How about tomorrow?" Beta said. "I'd say the three of you have been training hard enough. If these four get into the academy, I'm sure we can give them some time off so they can cheer you on."

"How about it, you two?" Kyoto grinned, looking at Red and Green.

"Definitely!" Red nodded vigorously.

"It doesn't matter what I say, majority always wins." Green said. "So fine."

"Stop being a grump." Red sighed again. "You gotta admit, Kyoto is the best pokemon to be our leader, if only for a day."

"I refuse to follow orders from anyone!" Green hissed.

"Excuse me, Green?" Beta asked quietly. "May I have a word with you in private?"

"Maybe, why?" Green's ears lowered, as if he was suspicious of Beta's sudden question.

"Just come with me. And you six, no peeking." Beta ordered, as he and Green went out into the corridors.

"What do you think Beta wants with Green?" Val asked.

"He's probably gonna talk some sense into him." Talon stretched out his claws and tail gently. "I've heard that sometimes Beta pops up when someone isn't being cooperative, and after a little 'talk' with them, they're willing to take any orders as long as they never get left alone with him again."

"Wow." Red gasped. "But . . . He's so nice! What could he do that's so bad that no one would want to be alone with him after he talks to them?"

"No idea." Dante shrugged. "Not one pokemon, when asked, has ever said what he did. I doubt even Green will, no matter how stubborn he seems."

**OOOOOO**

Renny: Yes, you all get to see what Beta does to Green in the next chapter. It is a Green one, after all.

Green: It's gonna hurt me, isn't it?

Renny: What else would it do? Show you pink bunnies and rainbow ponies?

Green: For once I hope so.

Renny: Well, too bad little boy.

Red: How bad will it be?

Renny: Bad, if anyone actually understands. Anyway! Who wants to do the honours? I'm sick of it.

Green: What? Oh, wait. I'll do it. Read, review and comment!


	7. Chapter 6- Nightmare Charizard

Renny: Time for a bit of horror.

Red: Oh no.

Renny: Muahahaha! Red, disclaimer.

Red: Renny doesn't own pokemon!

Renny: On with the show! Woo!

**OOOOOO**

**-Dojo, with Green and Beta-**

"So, you don't want to take orders from your temporary leader?" Beta asked as soon as they were out of the room.

"I don't do that." Green told him, glaring at the walls. "I give the orders, not the other way around."

"Well, I don't know what it was like in your human world, but here you listen to those who are superior to you." Beta said. "For me, that would be Irene, even if she's my partner."

"But-"

"Green, allow me to show you something."

Beta spread his unusual silver wings wide, and his tail flame started flickering on and off. Green watched it with strange fascination, and looked up at the huge Charizard.

"These wings?" Beta began. "They are not natural. I was born to a Charizard Mother, and I never knew my Father. My own Mother never knew him either. He had wiped any memory of himself from her, and when I was born? I had a silver tail flame. When I evolved into Charizard, my flame became normal, but my wings were silver."

"What does this have to do with-"

"It's a symbol of the legendary pokemon." Beta carried on, without even pausing. "No pokemon knows which one, but we can all guess is that it's most likely a dragon, probably Lugia or even Palkia. When I evolved into Charizard, I gained a power that I had to use carefully. Do you know what it was?"

Green shook his head, watching Beta lean down to his level.

"I gained the power of nightmares." Beta whispered. "I can show pokemon their worst fears, or one of them, just by willing it to happen. And right now, I can do that. However, if you wish not to be scared out of your mind, then you will accept Kyoto as your leader."

"I don't believe you." Green said. "There's no way you can have some sort of power over nightmares or fears."

"Oh? Then allow me to show you."

Just like Beta's tail, the world around them started flickering. After a few seconds, the tail flame and the world were flickering in unison, and suddenly Beta's flame went out. The world changed, and Green was on a small field that was on fire.

"W-where are we?" He yelped, backing away from a random flame that tried to lick his sides.

"**Your nightmares."** Beta said.

Green tried to see him, but the Charizard was gone. Like he'd flown away or something.

"Where are you!?" Green yelled. "Come on out, stop this stupid illusion!"

"**This isn't an illusion, Green. This is your subconscious nightmares."**

"I don't dream of fire!" Green cried. A small rock, covered in fire, rained down from the sky and almost hit the Eevee.

"**Subconscious."** Beta's voice called. **"It means that you don't remember this nightmare, but it stays the same and your mind buries it deep inside of your head. I have merely brought it forwards."**

More of the fire rocks started coming down from the darkened sky, and Green jumped away from some, only to run into others.

"Stop this!" Green shouted. "Stop it right now!"

"**Do you accept Kyoto as your temporary leader for tomorrow?"**

"No!"

"**Then my answer is the same as yours."**

More of the fire rocks were crashing all over the place. A few hit some trees that were scattered around and bunched up, and the leaves caught on fire. Green yelped as one of the trees suddenly fell down and almost hit him.

"Alright, you've had your fun!" He yelled to the burning sky. "Stop this!"

"**Not unless you agree."**

This time Beta was right next to him. His eyes were glowing blue, and again his tail flame was non-existent. His wings were spread as if to cover something, but he wasn't protecting Green at all. To Green, it seemed like he was a god.

A god of fear.

"I refuse to agree to something so ridiculous just because I'm a so-called 'perfectionist'!" Green snapped to the Charizard.

"**You will agree, otherwise this nightmare will be forced to run its own course. Don't you think there's a reason why you never remember this?" **Beta asked, his glowing eyes almost hypnotising.

" . . . It's fire." Green murmured. "I'm scared of fire, aren't I?"

"**You didn't know?"**

"I . . . I felt like I wanted to run when I was near it, but I didn't know why. I never did run though." Green said, looking around at the fire rocks. "That's why I had Charizard . . . To get over it. I did at some point."

"**I'm not asking what that even means, but yes. You are- were- afraid of fire." **Beta told him. **"Now that you know, I'm sure you'll be able to remember this nightmare. Of course, I won't be in it."**

"I can get this to stop if I agree, right?" Green asked, looking up.

"**You don't want to agree. Your heart isn't in it."**

"Well, of course not!" Green barked. "Of course I'm not gonna just agree, because I'm scared for some reason! No one ever does."

"**Well, the other pokemon I talked to did." **Beta said. **"Now, do you want this to end, or not?"**

" . . . I won't be scared when we're out of this, will I?"

"**The fear is subconscious." **Beta explained. **"So yes, you will. But not like here."**

"I'm not that scared here." Green mumbled.

"**You can't lie to me, not when I'm inside of your own mind." **Beta moved his head as if he was rolling his eyes. **"I take it you agree to have Kyoto as the temporary leader?"**

" . . . Fine. But I'm not gonna be quiet about it." Green sighed.

"**I suppose that's good enough. Now . . . I'm afraid you'll have to wake up on your own."**

"What!?" Green cried. "But you said . . ."

"**I know what I said, and I lied. See, I only know how to show pokemon their nightmares. I don't know how to get rid of them." **Beta said, shifting a bit. **"So . . . Just be brave, and don't change your mind about the leader thing, alright? Otherwise you'd have to go through this again."**

"I hate you." Green said flatly.

"**Yes, I know." **The Charizard smiled. **"Now, be brave. To you, this may be a long time, but for me it will only take a few seconds for you to wake up."**

"Ugh . . ."

Beta disappeared without any further words, and Green turned to face the fire rocks. His ears lowered when a huge one started coming down slowly, as if taunting him.

"_**MORTALS!"**_

The sudden voice started Green. He jumped around and tried to locate the voice, but found nothing.

"_**YOU WILL ALL PAY FOR WREAKING MY DOMAIN!"**_

Again, Green found nothing when he looked. The sky seemed to part open for the huge meteor, and then he noticed it was glowing a strange, dark blue colour. It was on fire as well.

"_**ALL MORTALS WITH PAY FOR THIS!"**_

"Who are you!?" Green yelled to the voice, hoping it would hear.

"_**FEEL MY WRATH!"**_

What wrath? Why? Green hissed as a small flame hit him on the tail, and he bounced backwards and tried to put it out. The fire turned black, and started burning even worse. When Green looked back, it was burning a huge hole into his tail.

"Why couldn't I have been a pokemon without a tail?" Green gasped, spinning around.

He saw another pokemon, but it was dark. He could see some red lines on it, and it was huge, but not as big as the meteor.

"_**YOU ARE TO PAY THE ULTIMATE PRICE FOR BRINGING THIS SAVAGERY TO MY DOMAIN, MORTAL!" **_ The huge creature screamed.

A beat.

"_**DRACO METEOR!"**_

Green didn't have time to even wonder what the things previous words meant. The only thought he could muster up, just before the huge meteor hit, was one single word.

_Fire._

**oooo**

Green woke up with a gasp. He jumped and stood, nearly falling when he forgot that he had four legs instead of two. The Eevee looked up at Beta.

"Well?" The Charizard asked. "Are you alright?"

Green nodded silently. The dream was still fresh in his head, and the huge screaming creature was still right there.

"That's somewhat alright. I take it you're probably going to maybe agree wholeheartedly to the leader thing?"

Again, Green nodded.

"Good. Now come on, let's go back into that room."

Green followed Beta blindly, walking in and sitting down next to Red again when he got in. The whole group was staring at him, but Green ignored them.

The dark creature seemed . . . angry. If it was angry, then who was it angry at? It could have been Green, because it was screaming at him, after all. But then again, he'd never seen such a huge pokemon before, and if he had, he couldn't remember. The red lines were obvious signs that it was angry as well. Again, who exactly was it angry at?

"Green?" Red asked. "You ok?"

Green nodded again. He was still wondering about the huge creature. He scanned his mind, trying to see whether or not the pokemon he knew of looked anything like it, even in the dark, but only came up with some pokemon that looked absolutely nothing like it. The creature appeared as though it was a completely new one, which could cause lots of problems for Green.

"I think he's fine." Talon, the Charmander, said. "If he wasn't, he'd be even worse than just quiet."

"I'll show you worse." Green snapped.

"Yep, he's back." Red sighed. "I was actually starting to like you being quiet."

Green glared at him. Red grinned and laughed, patting the Eevee on the head. Green hissed and backed down, ears low, teeth out.

"Hey, come on!" Red cried. "I was only being friendly. No need to just . . . do that."

"I do what I wa . . ." Green paused and looked up at Beta. " . . . Nevermind."

"Beta, what exactly did you do to him?" Kyoto asked.

"Hm, trade secrets." The silver-winged Charizard smiled.

"Green, what did he do?"

"I'm not saying."

Telling them what Beta did would mean that they would ask what his nightmare was about. Green wasn't ready to discuss it yet.

"Aw!" Red whined. "But I wanted to try it . . ."

"It's not something just anyone can do." Beta laughed. "Now then, I'm sure that Lilac and Blitzen are almost ready for you four, so Red, Green and Kyoto, go off into town or something. Just don't come back here, alright?"

"Why not?" Red asked.

"The second round, we're not allowed to see it." Kyoto sighed. She got up and glanced at Red and Green. "Come on then. I'll . . . Oh yeah, there's one more place I forgot to show you two. Come on!"

Red got up to follow her out the door, but Green hung back. He briefly looked up at Beta, who stared back with a knowing look.

"You saw it, didn't you?" Green murmured.

"I did." The silver-winged Charizard rumbled. "I'm not sure what it was, it was too dark to see, but I know for sure it was a dragon."

"What do you think it was? Some sort of made-up nightmare?"

"No, I'm not sure that something like that can be made up." Beta said. "If we see each other again, I may have some answers. Irene is ludicrously smart, so I can ask her for some help."

Green nodded. He shook himself and checked his tail, seeing if it still had the huge burn in it. The whole thing was still there, thankfully. He shook himself again and quickly dashed after Red and Kyoto.

**oooo**

**-Anchor town, main square-**

"Where are we going?"

"That's the tenth time you've asked, and I'm still not telling you."

Red groaned and fell back to where Green was padding after the two, muttering words Green didn't want to hear.

"Hey, you ever gonna say what Beta did to you?" Red asked him.

"Not yet." Green muttered. "Not until I figure out what it means."

"Oh great." Red sighed, slapping his face gently. "So neither of you are talking, this just gets better and better!"

"Hey, not my fault." Green shrugged. It was hard to do that when he was walking, and doing so threw his pace off a little. Red quickly helped the Eevee right himself, and they hurried after Kyoto.

"Well, Dante and Talon told me that what Beta does is so horrible that you don't wanna be left alone with him ever again." Red said. "Did he do something horrible to you?"

"More like confusing."

"So, he didn't scare you out of your mind?"

"Not really. What he showed me was worse." Green smirked. He loved messing with Red. It was fun to see the slightly older boy-turned-Pikachu squirm. Like now.

"Oh come on, stop being so cryptic!" Red cried. "Please, I'm your friend!"

Green stopped and stared at Red, glaring.

"You are not my friend." He said, with all the coldness he could muster. "You are my rival, yes, but not my friend. No one has ever been my friend and I intend to keep it like that."

"But . . ."

"No matter how 'friendly' I get, we will never be friends. Do you understand this?" Green growled.

"Green, I . . ."

"I said, _do you understand_!?" The Eevee snapped.

"I-I do." Red mumbled.

Green nodded, satisfied. He walked off after Kyoto, ignoring Red as he padded after them.

Kyoto was leading them to a large building with at least two floors, unlike most of the places around Anchor town. The front doors were made out of steel, or they looked like it, and were most likely extremely heavy. Green noticed some windows that had glass on them, and wondered where pokemon were able to find it.

"This is the Main Hall." Kyoto said, gesturing to the building. Now that she had said what it was, Green could tell it was easily the most fancy out of the whole town, other than the dojo.

"Why does it have two floors?" Red asked quietly. He must have been reeling from what Green told him still.

"The first floor is for town meetings and stuff like that." Kyoto explained, going up the steps to the steel doors. "The second floor is the living quarters, where Hillary lives."

"Hillary is the town mayor, right?"

"I'm surprised you remembered." Green muttered to himself.

"That's right, and she's always holed up in her office, trying to do stuff that can benefit us." Kyoto said, smiling a little. "Come on, I'll show you the hall. But you can't go up the stairs without permission, ok?"

Red and Green nodded, and after Kyoto pushed open the door, they walked into the large building.

The first thing Green noticed was that it was fancy and well lit, even if it was daylight still. There were torches everywhere, at least five or six on each wall. A huge chandelier hung down from the ceiling, but it was made from wood and held about twenty candles. There were a lot of plants scattered around the walls, and some tables that were around the centre but spaced out.

And in the top, right hand corner, there was a staircase leading up to the second floor of the Main Hall. Green was actually impressed that pokemon, especially ones who lived near the sea, were able to build something like this. It probably rivalled the ones from his own world, or at least the older ones anyway.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Kyoto grinned.

"Yeah . . ." Red whispered. He seemed in awe of the place.

"This is where a lot of pokemon come to eat food." Kyoto said, nodding to a few random pokemon around the room. "Other times the whole town including the academy pokemon come here for a town meeting."

"Why do you need those?" Red asked.

"Well, for how to run the town and make it safe, to discuss mystery dungeons, discussing problems in the town or outside of it, other stuff like that. Basically just to talk about stuff and also for announcements." Kyoto told them.

"This is like the stuff from our world." Green murmured. "And it's cool as well . . ."

"I know, right? I've been in a few meetings myself, but never bothered to participate." Kyoto said, walking around the tables.

She sat down at one and gestured for Red and Green to come over. Once they had settled, she looked up at the wooden chandelier.

"That thing was made by Team Razorshot." She said. "They've got a lot of pokemon with sharp claws, from what I heard, and they can carve stuff out of anything. Like that chandelier for example."

"Wow . . ." Red breathed. "Hey, when we get into the academy . . . Do you think we'll get our own Team?"

"I dunno." Kyoto said, looking down again. "The academy pokemon I talk to sometimes don't say. They're keeping it secret, just like the location and the second round thing."

"Oh, more secret stuff regarding the academy." Green sighed. "Yippee."

"I heard once that Team Razorshot was actually from the academy." Kyoto told them. "When they took the Exam, there was only about two of them. A Sandshrew and a Zangoose, I think it was. They added more members, got famous for their skills, and then they all evolved."

Well, at least the Sandshrew wasn't going to turn out to be the one working at Eon wares. Green shuddered to think if that was actually true. If it was, it could have been a harsh fall for the pokemon.

"They were?" Red grinned, his eyes sparkling like his Thundershock. "That's so cool! Hey, when we get into the academy . . . If we're allowed to make our own Team, what should we call it?"

"How about 'Shut Up Or I'll Slap You'?" Green barked.

" . . . Stop being a grouch."

"I do what- . . ."

Red rolled his eyes, something which offended Green, and looked up at Kyoto.

"What do you think?" He asked. "We should have something which should mean something!"

"Hmm . . . What about Team Victory?" Kyoto suggested.

"Too mainstream, and it doesn't make any sense at all." Green said. "Victory isn't what we're gonna get every single time, and if we don't get it as much as we should, we won't live up to it."

"What about Sharpshot?" Red hopped onto the table and grinned, sparking a little. "It's what we all are! We've got good aim, and-"

"Green doesn't have any special moves yet." Kyoto said. "And well . . . I don't know if I'm all that much of a sharpshooter actually."

"Uh . . . Go-Getters?"

"Please be serious about this." Green replied dryly.

"Sorry, I was just . . . Nevermind." Red sighed, sitting on the table. He stared at his feet.

"What about Firestorm?" Kyoto smiled. "I'm a fire type, you're an electric type, and Green can evolve into both!"

"I like it!" Red nodded. He turned to Green. "Well?"

"I like it as well." The Eevee nodded. "While I don't say this often, and by now both of you know that, it is actually a good one, and it actually makes sense."

"Green agrees, so we'll be Team Firestorm!" Red cried. "When we get in, we'll storm the place!"

"Hold up, we're not in yet." Kyoto laughed. "Plus, we may actually fail like I did last time."

Last time. Green's memory triggered back to when Kyoto first told them she'd already failed the Exam first time round, and he remembered that she had also said she didn't have many friends.

"I've been meaning to ask about that." He murmured.

"Oh?"

"See . . . You said you failed the Exam, right?" Green looked up at her. Kyoto nodded. "Well, you also said you didn't have that many friends."

"You wanna know how both of those fit together." Kyoto said quietly.

"Green, stop making her say stuff she doesn't wanna!" Red snapped.

"No, no, it's ok." Kyoto sighed. "You'd have asked sooner or later. Well . . . thing is, when a pokemon here fails the Exam to get in . . . They're seen as a laughing stock. A lot of pokemon see the first round as easy, mainly because it involves a lot of balance. But as you could clearly tell from my first attempt, I can't balance very well.

"I tried and failed the first time, and most pokemon here saw that as a failure for my life. For the first few weeks after it, I was scared to show my face in town, lest I get laughed at. After a while, Kaven decided he'd had enough, and started to walk around with me. If anyone laughed or said something, he used Flamethrower on them. Eventually they stopped and forgot it all, but the whole thing still stung. And that's actually why my failure to complete the Exam and my lack of friends are connected."

"That's just horrible." Red murmured in sympathy. "No one should go through that. Having no friends is . . ."

"Ah-hem." Green coughed, glaring at him. Red's mouth formed a straight line and he stopped talking.

"Well, it is." Kyoto shrugged. "Horrible I mean. But I didn't mind. All I cared about was that they stopped laughing at me. But now I've got you two, and . . . I'm happy enough."

"I'm not your friend." Green said. "I already explained this to that twit over there."

"Even if you don't consider me a friend, I consider you one." Kyoto said.

How confusing. Green didn't really get that. How could one be friends with someone if the other person wasn't friends with the first person in the first place? It was dumb and didn't make any sense, and Green didn't like stuff not making sense.

"You confuse me." He said.

"Heh, I know."

They stayed in the Main Hall until a pokemon, a Blissey Green presumed, told them to shoo because it was almost closing time. As they walked back through the town, Green glanced back at the _cliff._

It was still there, staring at him. Not literally of course, he knew that was silly, but it seemed as though it was staring at him. Of course, that was his dumb fear coming out again, so the Eevee looked away and tried to focus on where he was walking.

**OOOOOO**

Renny: Guess what comes next chapter?

Green: The Exam?

Renny: Yep! This is also where I'll be using the _Thomas's Pokemon Adventure_ thing now. Well, the test part anyway.

Red: You're going to enjoy writing this, aren't you?

Renny: Not writing it, no. I'll hate writing it, because I won't be able to describe it properly. I'll enjoy mind-screwing everyone though. Read, review and comment please!


	8. Chapter 7- The First Round

Renny: Well, I'm actually getting a few good reviews for this now!

Green: You know that-

Renny: Hush boy. Red's POV this time, since it's more of an action thing. Also, whichever Gust said that this story was detailed . . . I was actually going for that, so thanks for noticing! No really, thanks.

Red: My POV? For the entire Exam?

Renny: Well, we already know what the room looks like, so yeah. Besides, I can't just keep putting it off, can I? They need to get into a mystery dungeon sooner or later, and I'd prefer to have them in one at least in chapter 11 or something.

Red: Oh ok.

Renny: Anyway, Green, disclaimer!

Green: Renny doesn't own pokemon.

Renny: On with the show!

**OOOOOO**

**-The next day, Infinity bar room-**

Red woke up way before Green and Kyoto did. Green's hay-bed was still in the corner, away from them, and he was shaking a little. Red guessed because it was cold, but it didn't feel that cold. The Pikachu decided to ignore it since Green would only get mad and snap at him again if he asked anything.

After their little tour of the Main Hall yesterday, Red had made a decision to try being a good friend to both Kyoto and Green. Again, it was easy with Kyoto because she was already his friend, but after what Green had said yesterday Red was beginning to think he was a lost cause. But after thinking about it, Red decided that he wouldn't give up because according to Green, he'd never ever had an actual friend before.

Hopefully by the end of this Red could make a friend out of him. Whenever their little adventure here ended anyway.

Red sighed. He hadn't actually thought much about his own world, because they'd been too busy with the dojo and such, training to take the Exam. Now that he had some free time, he was thinking about it non-stop, because his decision to try to make a friend out of Green was what he was planning to do back in his own world. And on top of that, he missed it.

When he'd left Pallet town, his Mom and Dad were happy that he was finally getting to go somewhere with an actual purpose, which was to complete the professor's pokedex. When he told them he was going to the ruins to find the missing man, they'd been worried and thought he wouldn't return.

He didn't, obviously. And he'd also dragged Green with him, and he'd never told Green's family. Only Red's parents knew where he was, or where he should be at least. Hopefully they had enough sense to tell Green's sister and Grandfather so they wouldn't worry that much about the boy-turned-Eevee. Or maybe it would do the opposite and scare them.

Red sighed again. He really should have thought about this before he went off with Green as a 'hostage'. All he'd been thinking about was the fact that, if he and Green found the missing man, they would be heroes or something. But then he forgot to bring Green's own pokemon, rendering Green almost useless if not for his unusual night-sight, or whatever it was, and Red the only one capable of protecting both of them. He could have turned back the moment he realised the man was back now, because he'd found tracks coming to and from the ruins, but he didn't.

All because he wanted to explore. Red pulled some hay out from his bed and stared at it. This was a pokemon bed, and it was extremely comfortable. Before, in his human form, he would have preferred sleeping on a feathery bed or something, but this seemed like heaven. But it was also a reminder of how much different this world was to his own one.

Red murmured to himself as he realised the problem. Even if he'd gone away from home before, he had never been into another world like this one.

He was homesick. A part of him wondered if Green was homesick as well, but it was brushed away quickly because Green didn't even act like it. Then it came back when he remembered Kyoto's words.

"_He hides his feelings."_

Green may have been homesick as well, and Red wouldn't have known it at all. For all he knew, Green might have been even worse than him, and was probably even hiding it from himself as well. Just yet another mystery known as Green.

The sun started filtering through the window, and Green yawned. The Eevee sat up in the hay-bed, rubbed his eyes with his front paws with a little difficulty, and then glanced at Red. Almost immediately his expression changed from dazed and sleepy to hostile and grumpy like usual.

"Morning." Red whispered awkwardly.

" . . . Hi." Green muttered back. He looked over at the window, and his tail stretched out behind him carefully. Red wondered if Green was doing that himself or if it was subconscious.

"What were you dreaming about? Or were you cold?" Red asked him.

"None of your business."

Red rolled his eyes, quickly becoming annoyed with him, even though his thoughts were slightly sympathetic beforehand. He looked back at Kyoto, and saw she was still sleeping, so he decided to ask Green now.

"Hey, Green?"

"What?" The pokemon sighed, ears drooping. Red frowned a little but carried on.

"Are you . . . Do you miss Pallet town?" He asked quietly.

"You mean, am I homesick?"

"I guess so."

"We've done this before."

Red sighed. "No, I mean . . . We haven't done this like . . . like this. We're in another world. I guess what I mean is, do you miss our world?"

" . . . Yeah . . ." Green murmured. His ears twitched and his tail stopped moving. "I think I am, maybe. Are you?"

"Yes." Red nodded. So he was right then. Green was homesick as well. "I was just thinking about it, and . . . I wondered if you were as well."

"Well, you know the answer now." Green replied.

"I do, yeah . . ."

The silence that followed that conversation was awkward and strange to Red. He kept thinking maybe he could say something to start another conversation, but a look at Green's eyes, tired and almost drained of life, stopped him each time. There was something in his expression that told Red the Eevee didn't want to talk right now.

"Oh, you're both up!" Kyoto exclaimed, sitting up in her hay-bed. "Usually I'd have to get both of you up."

"I wasn't really that tired today." Red said, turning to face her. At least he could make conversation with Kyoto.

"Excited about the Exam?" Kyoto grinned. "I know I am. This time I might actually get through!"

"We will do." Red smiled back at her, still tired from his lack of sleep. "I guess we should get going, right?"

"Well, there's no rush." The one-armed Combusken shrugged. "We can get breakfast, go around town, and then go to the dojo about midday. That's when most of the Exams take place, anyway."

"A lot of pokemon are awake at midday." Green said quietly. "Is that a thing around here?"

"Yep! Wake up early and you're tired, but if you do you can see some of the Teams from the academy coming and going." Kyoto nodded. "I love talking to them. They're also the only ones who didn't laugh at me when I failed the Exam, because they know how hard it is to even pass the first round. Lilac loves to make it hard."

"I thought you just had to break some stuff and balance and swim?" Red frowned. "Why would it be any harder?"

"For pokemon who don't have balance, for example me, it's difficult." Kyoto said, glancing at her left stump. "I should have done it in a group so I could have someone backing me up, but I was overconfident. But now you two are here, I'm sure we can do this!"

"Probably." Green said.

"Stop being a grump." That had become almost like Red's motto now, he'd said it so many times. And Green had stopped reacting as well.

"Alright, let's go get breakfast!"

**oooo**

**-Dojo-**

Several hours later, the group of three made their way into the dojo. Red remembered that the Exam, or the first part anyway, was meant to take place in the fighting arena, so they quickly made their way there and emerged out into the small glass/clear walled room to find the whole group from yesterday, including a thin yet strong looking Feraligatr, sitting around and waiting for them.

"There they are!" Val cried instantly. "Hi guys! How's it going? You ready for some fun!?"

"Calm down, little Vulpix." The Feraligatr chuckled. From the sound of its voice, Red could tell it was female. "But, are the three of you ready and willing?"

"I've been waiting forever for another chance at this." Kyoto gasped. "Now I'm finally getting it, I'm willing to do anything to pass!"

"Does that include kicking me off the team?" Green asked. "Because if we pass, I am not going near the cliff."

The Feraligatr started laughing. Green looked offended, and he voiced it as well.

"I'm sorry, but how is that funny at all?" He demanded.

"It's . . . Well, who in the name of Dialga's hide actually told you the academy was near the cliff?" The Feraligatr laughed.

" . . . Kyoto?"

The Feraligatr started laughing even more, and actually fell onto her back. Beta rolled his eyes and looked at Kyoto, raising what could have been an eyebrow.

"Now, who told you that the academy was by the cliff?" The silver-winged Charizard asked.

"Uh, one of the academy pokemon?" Kyoto blinked.

"Well, I assure you, the academy is nowhere near the cliff." Beta smiled.

"So where is it?" Red asked. He was extremely confused now.

"We'll show you if you pass."

"Oh, they'll pass alright!" Val cried. "Just like we did! Right guys?"

"I have faith in them." Dante nodded. Talon grinned at them as well, his flame flickering between normal and larger sized. Night nodded as well, her own tail wagging like a dog's would.

"Thanks you four." Kyoto smiled.

"Enough pleasantries." Lilac snapped, looking back at them. "You three, are you going in together or not?"

"Together." Red said.

"Who is the temporary leader for the Exam?"

"I am." Kyoto said.

"Good, now get in the arena and get ready for me to tell you the rules."

Blitzen opened up the door for the trio, and nodded to them, smiling, as they walked past. As soon as they were all inside of the arena, the door closed and they were alone, not able to hear anything from the small box-like-and-see-through room that housed the group of pokemon watching them.

"Do you think we can do this?" Kyoto asked, swallowing as she looked at the iron beams that had been her downfall the last time she did it.

"There's more of us now." Red reassured her. "We can do this, alright? Believe in it!"

"Attention, Kyoto, Red and Green!" Lilac's voice came from somewhere in the room, but it sounded like it was everywhere.

"Wow." Red gasped. He didn't actually know pokemon were able to do this sort of thing.

"I will now explain the rules to you, so pay attention, because you didn't do that yesterday." Lilac said. "The first rule; you can help each other out as much as you want, but there are limits. The first limit, you may not help out a teammate who has fallen off the iron beams. If they do so, then the whole team is out. Second limit, if one teammate gets hit by a spike, don't worry it won't hurt you but it will sting, then the same rules apply as the first limit.

"The second rule; you may only use one move for this, and I have chosen these moves for you. Kyoto's chosen move- Double Kick. Red's chosen move- Thundershock. Green's chosen move- Tackle. If you use any other moves, you will all be disqualified. The third rule; you can take as long as you want to. There is no time limit, and you may spend as much time on one obstacle as you wish. And finally, the last rule; to stop the spikes and alert me that you have completed this first half of the Exam, you must press the red button that has been placed at the end of the pool you see in front of you. To get across the pool we have provided a raft made from wood, because Kyoto is a fire pokemon.

"Now, listen to me. To complete this course you must first go through the ditch that has the wooden beams in, and destroy each and every one. There are a total of six of them, which would mean two for each of you. Once you get out from the other side of the ditch, it doesn't matter which end you go into first, you must jump onto the iron beams and try to keep yourself balanced as well as get to the end of the iron beams, and avoid getting hit by the spikes. If you fall from the beams, you are out. Next, for the last part of this course, you have to get across the pool while still avoiding the spikes, and if you do this, press the red button. You have then completed the course. Ready?"

"Let's go down the right end." Kyoto whispered. "That way we can come out and go onto the left end of the iron beams."

"Get set!"

"Got it." Red and Green nodded.

"And . . . _GO_!"

As soon as the spikes started moving, Kyoto dashed into the ditch. Red and Green followed her, and they ran as fast as they could.

"Can Lilac see us in here?" Red asked as they ran.

"No." Kyoto replied, keeping her eyes forward. "This is the first part of the course. She doesn't care what we do here so long as we get rid of all six of the wooden beams. Remember; use only the moves she told you to use!"

"Wooden beam up ahead!" Green called. "Who wants this one?"

"I'll take it!" Kyoto cried. "That way I can show you where to hit them!"

The one-armed Combusken sped up suddenly, and the wooden beam got closer. Red saw her eyes narrow, and then suddenly she shot off again and sprung. Her leg kicked out once, hitting the beam, and then the second kick smashed it. Both legs had hit the same place- right in the middle of the beam.

"That was it!" Kyoto told them, stopping. "Hit the wooden beams in the middle. That's the weakest point."

Red and Green stopped as well, and Red saw another beam up ahead of them.

"Oh, can take this one?" He asked.

"Go ahead."

Red got onto all fours like Blitzen had taught him. He concentrated on his spark, the thing which gave Pikachu and any electric pokemon their power and in some cases life, and willed it outwards. Blitzen had told him to imagine he was a thunderstorm, one that would devastate the land and strike without fear, and with precision. He smirked, and let loose the thunder inside of him.

The world went white for a split second, and then the wooden beam was smashed apart like the one Kyoto had just destroyed, only there was a small black part where the middle had been blown up.

"Nice!" Kyoto laughed. "We keep going like this and we'll have this in the bag!"

"What bag?" Green asked.

"It's an expression." Red told him. They really needed to work on Green taking stuff so literally.

"Green gets the next one. It's only fair." Kyoto told them. "Alright, come on. We've run the first part of the way, so we can take it nice and slow now."

"Right."

This time, instead of running, they walked. After a few seconds, and after they got over the beam Red had Thundershocked, they came up to another one. It seemed sturdier than the other two.

"This is where it gets harder." Kyoto said, walking up to it and wrapping her claws on it. "This one is sort of reinforced with a tiny bit of steel. The ones after this have a full sheet of steel inside them, but they're not visible."

"Wait, you want me to charge head-first into steel?" Green cried. "No! I'll get brain damage or something!"

"Come on, two each." Kyoto said. "You take this one and the last one. Got it?"

" . . . Fine." He muttered. "Stand back. If I don't get it, someone blast it open for me."

Red quickly made his way to the edge of the ditch, away from Green's path. Kyoto did the same, watching the Eevee with a worried expression.

"He might not get this." She murmured. "I should have given him the first one . . ."

"No, then we wouldn't know where to hit." Red told her. "Besides, this one doesn't have that much steel in. You said it yourself."

"I know, but . . ."

"PREEAAAAAHHHH!"

The sudden primeval screech came as a shock. Red jumped almost five feet into the air, but managed to calm himself down. He then saw Green starting to run at the wooden beam, and speed up to an almost unrivalled speed when he was closer. The Eevee's eyes narrowed like Kyoto's had done, and then he hit the wooden beam . . .

_CRUNCH! BAAAMM!_

And crashed right through it. With the middle gone, the entire thing came down, and Red and Kyoto saw Green staggering around on the other side.

"Are you ok!?" Kyoto cried, jumping over the destroyed beam to check him. Red quickly followed, equally as worried.

"That . . . That . . ." Green murmured, righting himself as best as he could.

"Where did that even come from?" Red asked, glancing back as if the screech was going to appear out of nowhere with a body.

"Lilac." Green said. "She told me . . . screeching like that would . . . help the pain of . . . hitting something with my Tackle . . ."

He collapsed and sighed.

"Apparently it only makes me sound nuts." He finished.

"That was scary and awesome." Red grinned.

"Can you keep going?" Kyoto asked Green.

"Yep, just gimme a second."

They gave him almost three minutes to recover. As soon as Green was back on his feet, albeit still staggering a bit, they started off again, going a bit slower. The next beam came up, and Kyoto quickly took care of it with her Double Kick. It shattered, much like the one Green had destroyed, and they went onto the next one.

"I don't know if lighting can wreck this, but try it." Kyoto said. "It might work. You know, with the whole . . . steel conductor or something."

Up above them, Red noticed some of the spikes still flying in random directions. He hadn't seen them before, first they'd been too busy running giddily, second they'd been too busy with killing the wooden beams, and then they were busy with Green and a major headache he'd probably feel for the rest of his life.

He readied his Thundershock and shot it outwards. The wooden beam seemed to shudder right before the lightning hit, and then it crumbled, literally crumbled, as soon as it did. Red blinked. He hadn't expected it to be so easy.

"That's what I thought." Kyoto nodded. "The beams can withstand nearly anything but lighting. I don't know exactly how it works, but I once saw a Plusle use Thundershock on it, and it did the exact same thing. I guess it's something to do with the metal itself."

"Well, that's reassuring to know that Red can disintegrate them if I die from hitting one with my head." Green said, huffing a little. For once, Red didn't call him a grump. He had every right to act like that after the first steel-ish one.

"One left." Kyoto mumbled to herself. "One left, and then the iron beams . . ."

Red paused before they started off to the last one. He looked up at the spikes, and frowned.

"Hey, Kyoto?" He called.

The one-armed Combusken looked back. "Yeah, what?"

"What are those spikes made from again?"

"Lilac said they were made from steel." Green answered for her. "Why?"

"I don't think the spikes will be any problem in the iron beam part." Red said. There was a grin starting to come onto his face, a very devious one.

"I get it." Kyoto nodded, smiling as well. "You can stop the spikes from hitting us, and I can focus on getting across the beam itself."

"I have an idea of how we can get across, but let's wait until we get the last wood thing." Green told them.

"By all means." Red shrugged.

The last wooden beam was tough. It seemed more sturdy than the last two, and Green sighed again. Red sighed as well. He knew Green's head wasn't that hard.

"Ok, before you forget this plan of yours while bashing your skull of that, tell us." Kyoto said. Apparently she thought the same as well.

"Fine then. See, Kyoto has one arm." Green began. "That arm actually weighs the exact same as I do, or maybe a bit more. I was thinking, that while Red's zapping the spikes to get rid of them, I can get onto Kyoto's left shoulder and act as a weight for her."

"That's a pretty smart plan." Kyoto grinned. "Yeah, let's do that! How long can you zap stuff for?"

"As long as I can." Red said. "Blitzen told me I could make it infinite if I wanted to. I'll only run out of lightning if I die, really."

"Then that's what we'll do." Kyoto nodded. "Green acts as a weight so I can balance better, and Red gets rid of the spikes. I know I've been practising my balance with one arm, but I still don't trust it."

"What about the last part?" Red asked. "The pool thing."

"You get rid of the spikes, and me and Green can paddle as fast as we can." Kyoto said. "I'll go up front because of my one arm as usual, and Green can sort of go from side to side to help out as much as he can. Basically, Red, you'll be doing a lot of cover fire after this."

"Fine by me." Red shrugged.

After that, they quickly moved aside so Green could do another little screech-and-Tackle thing. The beam didn't smash, but another Tackle had it falling. Green didn't get as much of a headache this time, probably because he already had one from before, and they made their way out of the ditch.

None of the spikes seemed to hit where they were. It seemed like they were in a safe zone of some sort. Most were hitting overhead, whizzing past the iron beams and going over the pool.

"Alright . . ." Kyoto murmured. She lowered herself down so that Green could climb onto her left stump, and then looked up at the iron beam ahead of them. "This is where it gets harder. Once we get over this, we'll be fine."

"What about the pool?" Red asked.

"We don't have to worry about that." She said. "It'll be easy compared to these beams. I'll try and grip as best as I can, and you try and keep yourself steady on my . . . uh, stump."

"I can try, but no promises." Green told her. "I'm not exactly used to clinging onto someone's leftover arm thing."

"Right." Kyoto nodded. She didn't seem fazed by the words Green had used.

Red looked up at the iron beams. Once they stepped onto them, or jumped, the spikes would be able to hit them. It would then be his job to hit every single of them that came near the three, and protect Kyoto and himself, and Green for that matter, any way he could. This was gonna be hard.

"The spikes only come from the side." Kyoto told him. "So you don't have to look behind yourself. Just keep an eye on the sides, and we can make it."

"Got it." Red nodded.

Kyoto crouched down, and Red got ready to jump right after her. As soon as she was on the iron beam, Kyoto would be vulnerable to any spikes coming in close to her, and Red knew he'd have to be fast in coming up behind her. Kyoto jumped, and a split second later he jumped as well.

Strangely, both ended up on the beam at the same time, though Kyoto was in front of Red by a foot at least. The first spike came into sight, and he zapped it. It broke and crumbled like the wood-steel beam he'd hit, but he didn't pause to celebrate. There were still many more to get rid of.

With Green acting as a weight for Kyoto, the one-armed pokemon was able to focus more on her feet so she wouldn't make a wrong step. Red focused on the spikes, since his tail would keep him balanced no matter what. Briefly he wondered what it would have been like if Green had been on the beam as well, but the Eevee would probably fall off because he had four legs, and thus even worse balance than Kyoto did.

They moved slowly as well. Kyoto couldn't move faster, and that would have put her in a more dangerous position had Red not been there. After another spike was crumbled on the ground, he noticed the end of the iron beams coming up to them.

"We're almost there!" He yelled to Kyoto and Green. "Just keep going!"

Red destroyed as many spikes as he could. Kyoto made her way off the beam as soon as she could, and Red, ignoring the rest of the spikes because he was too small for them to hit him, dashed off it as well. The two took a quick breather.

"Didn't think that'd work, actually." Green muttered. He slid off of Kyoto's stump, and settled on the floor.

"Well, it did." Red gasped. "Now all we got left is the pool."

"Which will be the second easiest thing here." Kyoto said.

"There's only three things here." Green pointed out.

"True, but still."

A few more seconds of rest, and then they got over to the pool. The wooden raft was sitting halfway in it, and Kyoto got straight onto it. It almost tipped, but Red and Green ran onto quickly and it straightened itself out.

"Ok, bad news." Kyoto breathed. "I don't think we can do that whole 'row and zap' thing I said. I'll do it myself. Green, try to keep it level. Red, destroy the spikes, but stay in the same place. Don't move unless you have to."

"Got it." Red and Green nodded.

Kyoto took a deep breath, and she started paddling with her arm as fast as she could. Red zapped the spikes, and Green didn't move unless Red did, so it was an easy thing. Perhaps even easier than the first part.

The second they got off the raft, Kyoto dashed up to the button and pushed it. Immediately the spikes stopped shooting everywhere, and Lilac looked up from the controls. Her head tilted, and she said something to one of the other pokemon inside the see-through room.

The door opened and Beta came in, and then he flew across the room to where Red, Green and Kyoto were standing.

"Well done, all three of you." He grinned. "Get onto my back."

Green seemed a bit hesitant, but he eventually got on as well. Beta flew them easily to the other side, which made Red wonder how many times he'd done this before. Then they went inside, and everyone, except for Lilac of course, was cheering loudly.

"Well done!" Blitzen cried. "I knew those lessons I have you would help!"

"Thanks, by the way." Red grinned.

"Hold it." Lilac commanded loudly. Everyone stopped cheering.

The cold-gazed Vaporeon strode to the middle of the room, in front of the three pokemon who had just completed the obstacle course.

"You three have to take the second part of the Exam now." She said.

Red's face fell. He glanced at the room, and wondered why most of the pokemon, save for Lilac and his teammates, were smiling.

"I was kinda hoping it was fake." Kyoto muttered.

"Nothing in life is ever simple, so I don't see why we should make this simple." Lilac snapped.

Red sighed. Looked like they might have a harder time in the second round that they thought.

"The second round is a single question." The Feraligatr, who Red had forgotten about until now, spoke up. "It's the deciding question, and is also extremely hard to answer."

" . . . Well?" Beta asked. "Will you take the question or not?"

"Bear in mind, this is the deciding round." The Feraligatr said. "This question will allow the three of you into the academy. However, if you fail, you will never be allowed to take this Exam ever again."

Kyoto looked down at Red, and then at Green.

"What do you think?" She asked.

Red nodded. Green nodded a second later. Kyoto looked up at the Feraligatr.

"We'll take the question." She said.

**OOOOOO**

Renny: Oh god, this has the most words I've ever written for this story . . .

Red: Why so many?

Renny: I had to make you think about stuff. Which is technically not what I said about your POV chapters, but oh well.

Green: So, what's the question?

Renny: You'll find out next chapter. Read, review and comment!


	9. Chapter 8- Truth

Renny: And here's the next part of the Entrance Exam! Oh yeah, I got Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity today, so I'll be putting Post town and Paradise in this fanfic at some point as well!

Green: Oh great, I thought it'd just be pokemon from the fourth generation and downwards!

Renny: Lol nope. Anyway, Red!

Red: Whu- Oh! Renny doesn't own pokemon!

Renny: On with the show!

**OOOOOO**

**-Dojo, fighting arena control room-**

Everyone, minus Red, Green and Kyoto, broke out into smiles. Even Lilac was smiling as well. Then they started laughing.

"Uh, what's so funny?" Red asked. Green was wondering that himself. Why would they all laugh?

"Oh, nothing really." Beta chuckled. The Feraligatr stepped forward, still laughing a little.

"My name is Irene, and I am partner to Beta." She said.

"So that's who Irene is." Green heard Kyoto mutter.

"I am also the headmistress in Anchor academy." Irene went on. "And you three have just passed the Entrance Exam."

"Wait, what?" Red blinked. "We did? How?"

"We didn't answer the question." Green frowned.

"Oh, but you did!" Blitzen cried.

"I don't get it." Kyoto said. Irene laughed again, and stood to her full height, which made Green feel . . . well, extremely tiny compared to the huge water type.

"What I just said." Irene told the three. "I told you, 'if you choose to answer this question, and if you fail, you won't get another chance.' Didn't I?"

"You did, but . . ." Red trailed off. Green was starting to understand it now.

"That was the question." He said, as several of the rooms inhabitants turned to him. "That . . . what you said. About the choosing thing. If we decided to answer it, despite the risks, we pass. Right?"

"Perceptive." Irene nodded. "And you say he's a perfectionist? I'd say he just likes to look for things others can't see."

Green gave a triumphant glance to Red and Kyoto, who both plainly ignored him. He almost laughed at them, but held back.

"But yes, the choice was the question." Irene went on. "If you decided to take the question, despite the risks, you passed. This is because it shows that you're willing to take any sort of risks to get what you want or need, and that's what we look for in our students."

"Oh, now I get it!" Kyoto cried. "Wow, we passed the whole Exam?"

"That's right." Beta nodded. "And now I think it's time we revealed exactly who everyone is. Blitzen, why don't you and Lilac start?"

"Fine by me." The Raichu shrugged. He looked at the three newly-joined students, and grinned. "As you know, I'm Blitzen, and my partner and leader is Lilac here. We work on a Team know as Team Glitched, one of the most famous pokemon Teams in history. You've met Acrylic the Aggron, and since you're with Kyoto I'd say you've met Psycho the Slowbro, yeah?"

"He's in your Team?" Red gasped. "N-no way!"

"He may have told you that he was in a Team, but he never says which one." Lilac said. "He's humble and modest, really. There are other members, but we'll introduce them at some point. Anyway, Blitzen and I work at the dojo as its personal trainers and owners. We also hold the Entrance Exam for the Anchor academy."

"I think we should go next, don't you?" Beta asked Irene. The Feraligatr nodded and puffed out her chest a little bit.

"I'm Irene, and this is my partner Beta. We both belong to a Team known solely as Team Ice-Claw, I'm the leader by the way, and our last main member is a Scyther called Sol. He's sort of grumpy but we love him." Irene chuckled. "Anyway, Beta works as my deputy head in the academy, and I am the headmistress. Sol is the trainer who works with new recruits to help them get into the swing of things."

Green couldn't help but gape at all four of the pokemon. He'd known that Blitzen and Lilac were the owners and whatever of the dojo, but he never could have guessed that they were on a Team of their own, and that Psycho himself was on their team. And Beta kept himself hidden as well . . . Irene was the only one he hadn't even known existed.

"What about them?" Kyoto asked, nodding to the group of pokemon who had watched them take the Exam.

"Oh, they're the new recruits, as you already know." Beta said. "Would you all like to re-introduce yourselves?"

"We don't need to say our names, do we?" Dante asked.

"Not unless you want to."

"Oh, good." The Bulbasaur muttered.

"Oh, can I say it?" Val cried. "Please please please?"

"Well, you are the l-"

"No, no!" She yelled, hitting Talon with her tails. "I wanna tell them!"

"Tell us what?" Green asked.

"Oh, oh, you won't believe this!" The Vulpix squealed. "Ok, uh . . . Well, we're all on the same training Team, and we've called ourselves Team Sunrise! I'm the leader of this Team, by the way! And, and . . . Oooh I can't say it I'm too excited!"

"We've decided that you three can join their Team." Irene smiled. "So, whenever we get the paperwork done, the three of you will be official members of Team Sunrise."

" . . . Oh." Red plainly said. Kyoto also slumped a little, and Green just stared at the floor with a blank face. Or at least he thought it was blank.

"What's wrong?" Val asked, worried. "Did we do something wrong?"

"W-well . . . It's just . . ." Kyoto swallowed. "We kinda thought we'd get our own Team, or something."

"Ah." Irene muttered. "That's not allowed, not yet. Sol refuses to take on more than one training Team for five weeks, and well . . . That's just how it is, I'm afraid. You three have to join Team Sunrise, or be forced to wait five weeks and then come in. Which do you want to do?"

" . . . Guys?" Kyoto murmured. "Uh, group huddle. Or whatever it's called."

Kyoto leaned down so she could mutter to them, and Red and Green moved closer so they could hear. Kyoto sighed, wiping her face a little.

"Are you ok?" Red murmured.

"Yeah." Kyoto sighed. "I just thought . . . we could have our own Team . . . but . . ."

"That doesn't matter." Green told her. Both turned to him in surprise. "We're in, right? That's what should matter. Besides, Firestorm . . . doesn't sound as meaningful as Sunrise does. And we already know the whole Team there, so . . . How about we go on their Team instead? It'll be a lot better than just the three of us."

"You . . . make a good point." Kyoto muttered.

"Yeah." Red sighed.

Green nodded. He didn't really care much about which Team he was on, but seeing Red and Kyoto crushed . . . He didn't know what came over him to say something like that to either of them. Maybe one day he would know, but for now he would wonder.

"Alright." Kyoto said, nodding. "We'll go onto Team Sunrise instead."

They turned back to the group, who were mostly watching with concerned expressions (Lilac being the exception, she wore a blank mask).

"Have you made your decision?" Irene asked.

"They're gonna go!" Val whimpered. "They're gonna go and it's all because we signed on yesterday and-"

"We're joining Team Sunrise." Kyoto said loudly. At once, Val stopped her whining, and she stood shocked to silence for the first time Green had met her.

And then she started screaming happily.

Green winced, as did most of the pokemon. Even Night did, who seemed to have some sort of history with the energetic Vulpix. Val squealed and jumped around, screeching words that no one could understand, and then she suddenly appeared in front of Green.

"Hi!" She giggled. "Green, right? Yep it's Green!"

"Uh . . . H-hi?" Green squeaked back. He heard Red sniggering, but he was too preoccupied with Val to do much. Green would get him back later.

"I love Eevee!" Val continued. "My Dad was an Eevee until he evolved, so that's why! Oh, I can't wait for tomorrow!"

"What's happening tomorrow?" Kyoto asked.

"Team Sunrise will all be going on their first training mission with Sol." Beta told her. "And since you're all with them, this now includes you."

"He's not gonna be happy about having seven pokemon instead of four." Irene smiled. "But I'm sure I can convince him."

"You should all be getting back into the academy now." Blitzen said.

"Aw, already?" Val whined.

"We'll show them around first before anything." Talon announced. "Even if we don't know the place well, it's easy to remember where everything is. Plus, there are signs."

"Um, are those signs written in Footprint Runes?" Kyoto asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"These two can't read it." The one-armed Combusken said, pointing to Red and Green.

"Ah, they're illiterate." Dante nodded. "Well, they'll have at least one of us with them at any given time, so they won't need to read them. But we'll try and teach them."

"I am not illiterate." Green snapped at the same time as Red did.

"Well, me and Beta have to go and get some more supplies from the Eon wares, so you four go and show your new teammates around the academy." Irene suddenly called. She went out the door with Beta in tow, and then the room was actually a lot bigger. Probably because the two were huge pokemon to begin with.

"Get out, all of you." Lilac snapped. "Go on."

"Follow us. We'll take you to the academy doors." Dante told the new members.

As soon as they were out the doors of the fighting arena, Green, along with Red and Kyoto, tried to walk out of the dojo. Talon stopped them, laughing.

"Why aren't we going out?" Red asked. "We're going to the academy, right?"

"Yep. But the academy isn't that way." Dante smiled.

"No way." Kyoto gasped. "Don't tell me . . ."

"The academy is actually here." Dante nodded. "That's right. Lemme explain this to all of you. It came as a huge shock for us yesterday, so we'll know what you're going through right now. Some of the students may have said it was near the cliff. Others may have said it wasn't even in the town. In fact, the academy is in the town."

"It's actually under the town." Talon continued. "It's a huge network of underground tunnels, rooms, corridors and stairs, and it goes all over the town. There are three entrances. The first is the main one, which nearly everyone uses. This one is down by the beach, where the cave is. No one ever goes down there, so it's the perfect cover. The second one is the one by the cliff, which is only to be used in emergencies."

Green sighed. At least he wouldn't have to use the _cliff_ to get anywhere with the academy stuff. And going in and out by beach caves sounded really nice and cool to him as well.

"What about the last one?" Red asked.

"The last one is in the dojo." Val grinned. "That room that only a few pokemon, mainly academy ones, go into? That's it. It's a room where mostly new recruits go to register their Teams or join an existing one, and then once they do that, they go down the stairs and get into the academy!"

"Wow . . ." Kyoto breathed. "So, this whole time, the academy was actually right under our feet?"

"Yep." Dante nodded. "There are about . . . fifteen or sixteen floors, all going underground. Basement Floor 1 is the floor where the three entrances connect and then lead to a staircase going to Basement Floor 2. We'll show you around the main floors when we get you officially onto our Team."

Val, Dante and Talon led them to the room at the end of the hallway. Night walked next to Green, and smiled brightly at him. Green wondered if she was just trying to be friendly, since pokemon like her (four-legged) didn't really have hands to do sign language. Then he remembered he didn't either.

Wait, that meant he actually was technically illiterate in this world. He couldn't read or write. Red at least had hands to learn how to write stuff, and thus was going to have an easier time learning these so called 'Footprint Runes'. Green moaned under his breath.

He felt a small whip and looked at Night. She was wearing a concerned face, frowning at him. Green shook his head and looked ahead.

Talon, being the only one with hands in the current Team Sunrise (not including the new recruits yet), held open the door for the majority of the Team. As soon as everyone was in, he closed it. The room was dark, and the only thing giving light was Talon's tail flame, which Green was glad for having around for once.

"Hey, Terrie." Talon called to the darkness. "Come on out!"

A small, haunting laugh was heard a second afterwards. The lights, all of them torches, suddenly flickered to life. The wall opposite the group, which was solid looking and would probably take a lot of Tackles to crush, suddenly became a bit transparent. Well, a section of it did.

A Haunter floated through a second after, and smiled at them. Green reacted immediately.

"GHOST!" He screamed. "GO AWAY, GO AWAY!"

"Green, what's wrong!?" Kyoto cried.

Green ignored her, and backed up against the closed door, hissing at the Haunter as best as he could.

"S-say, is he alright?" The Haunter asked.

Green hissed again, and crouched. He didn't care if Tackle did no damage to a ghost; he was going to get away from it no matter what.

"Hey, cool it!" Talon shouted at him.

"PREEEAAAAAHHH!"

The attack went straight through the Haunter, as expected, but Green managed to get on the other side of the wall. He dashed down the stairs and into a stone corridor that had three other corridors. Green's nose told him one led to a beach, another led to the _cliff_, and the other went further underground.

He took the one that went underground and ran.

Soon, another bunch of stairs came up, and he dashed down those as well. Somewhere in the logical part of his mind was screaming he shouldn't be doing that otherwise he'd hurt himself, but it was hit and beaten with a stick by the scared part.

That Haunter was not going to kill him. Not again.

**oooo**

**-Unknown-**

Some minutes later, after he'd passed a few pokemon who shouted at him for knocking them out of the way, and also passed a few random rooms, Green found a small corridor, dark and isolated.

He went into it and curled up at the bottom, aiming to go to sleep. A few more minutes later, he drifted off. Then he woke up in familiar surroundings.

His home. He was sitting on the floor, back in his human body again. Why was he back here? Maybe it was a dream, or maybe the Haunter had actually gotten him. Green swallowed his panic. The Eevee- no, boy for now- stood and made his way to the study, where he knew his Grandfather would be.

He was surprised when he saw both his Grandfather and his sister in there, talking.

"But what if he's gone missing, like that guy?" Daisy was asking. She seemed scared.

"Green'll turn up, just like he did." Oak said. "He'll come back. He's done it before."

"Yeah, but that's only here! The ruins are on an island in the middle of the sea!" Daisy snapped. "At least when he was here we knew where he was!"

"Daisy, calm down."

The woman did so, taking deep breaths. Her scared gaze passed over a confused Green, but she didn't seem to see him.

"D-Daisy." Green whispered. His voice got a little louder. "Daisy! I-I'm right here!"

"I hope he's alright . . ." Daisy murmured.

"I do too, Daisy. But we know he can take care of himself." Oak said.

"Daisy, listen to me!" Green cried. "Daisy! Grandpa!?"

"He . . . He might have done the same thing as last time." Daisy sighed. "Only he took Red as well."

"He wouldn't have done that. We made amends with him, remember?" Oak said gently. "He can't have run away again."

"DAISY!"

"_Green, wake up!"_

**oooo**

Green looked up into the crimson eyes of the only link he had left of his own world, and he cried. Red seemed shocked, as if he didn't know what to do.

"Green, what- What's wrong?" Red whispered, sitting next to Green's curled up body. "You just tried to attack Terrie, and then . . . Now you're crying. What's wrong?"

"I-I . . . I wanna go home." Green whimpered. "I wanna go home . . ."

"I know, I do to . . ." Red murmured. "But we can't."

"No, you don't understand!" Green snapped. "They think I've ran away again!"

"What do you mean 'again'?"

Ok, he didn't mean to say that. At all.

"P-pretend you didn't hear that." Green muttered.

"Now I'm really interested." Red said. "What do you mean by that? And why are you crying? Why did you attack Terrie?"

" . . . One at a time." Green said, finally giving up. He knew it was stupid that he was giving up so soon, but Red wouldn't stop pestering him if he didn't.

"Alright then. What do you mean by 'ran away again'?" Red asked.

Green was silent for a few seconds. Just as Red was about to ask the question again, Green could tell that easily, the Eevee answered him.

"I didn't receive my Charmander when I went around Kanto." Green sighed. "I . . . I stole him."

"W-what!? But . . ."

"I know, Grandpa supposedly gave him to me and all." Green snapped. "But that's not what actually happened. See . . . he wouldn't let me go."

"Why?" Red asked quietly.

"I dunno. But he wouldn't, even though I had Scyther and Charmander. To stop me from going, Grandpa took away Charmander. One day I decided to steal Charmander back, and I took a pokedex as well, so I wouldn't have to go back for whatever reason." Green told him. "That day you met me in Pallet forest . . . I was trying to get away as fast as I could, and then I saw Mew and I thought . . . If I could have her, Grandpa would have to let me go. But she was too strong."

"So . . . You tried to catch the best pokemon you could find, just because you wanted Oak to let you go?" Red murmured.

"Yeah . . . It must have worked, because when I called him after the Lavender town thing . . . he wasn't mad at me. He let me go." Green said.

" . . . Well, that explains your attitude." Red said.

"Yeah. I thought you were someone Grandpa had hired to try and get me to go back, so . . . I tried to be as hostile as I could to you." Green murmured, laying his head on his paws. "And . . . I-I know it was dumb, but . . . for what it's worth, I'm sorry. I know you weren't."

"No, I get it." Red said. "You didn't want to go back, and since I had a pokedex . . . I get it, ok? . . . So . . . you made amends with him, right?"

"At some point." Green nodded. "We got along better after whenever that was. He didn't bring up me running away ever again."

"Ok, then. Next one. Why were you crying just now?" Red asked.

" . . . I had a dream." Green mumbled. "I . . . I was back in my home. Daisy and Grandpa were talking about me and they were worried. They thought I'd gone missing again, ran off with you and gone to the ruins or something."

"I guess my Mom and Dad didn't tell them the right thing." Red sighed. "I knew I should have left a note or something . . ."

"What you should have done is told Daisy and Grandpa before putting me to sleep!" Green snapped at him.

"I know . . . I'm sorry." Red said. "S-so . . . You were crying because you had that dream?"

"I was there." Green said. "I was watching them, I could feel everything, and I could speak, but they couldn't hear me. I don't care if it was a short dream, it . . . it hurt."

"I . . . I don't know what to say." Red sighed. "I don't dream of my Mom and Dad here . . ."

"Maybe because you're somewhat fine?" Green suggested. "You're family knows exactly where you are. Mine . . . got that twisted tale your parents probably gave them."

"Yeah, sorry about them." Red smiled a bit. Green rolled his eyes and flicked the Pikachu on the head.

"Anyway, sappy stuff aside for now, what was the last one?" He asked.

"Why did you attack Terrie? The Haunter, I mean." Red said.

" . . . Lavender town." Green muttered. "It's because of Lavender town."

"Well, I get you'd be scared, but not like-"

"Red, when someone gets possessed by anything, pokemon or otherwise, the original spirit is forced out of the body." Green broke in. "So, basically, I was _dead_ for two weeks before you came in and saved me."

"D-dead?" Red gaped. "That's . . . That's actually a pretty good reason to be terrified and act like that . . . But Terrie was really nice! Even though you tried to kill her, sort of."

"And whenever you see her again, tell her I'm sorry." Green scoffed. "I just don't like ghosts, ok? I hate the things . . . You ever wondered why I don't have any ghost type pokemon?"

"Oh, well, I did, but I know why now." Red laughed.

"You're laughing at my fear? Oh, I hate you." Green muttered.

"And you're back to normal." Red grinned. He stood and looked down at Green. "The others are waiting by the stairs. The ones going down to the third floor, I mean. We'd better go."

"Why didn't they come with you?" Green asked, standing as well.

"Oh, they figured that since I know you the best, sort of, I'd have the better time finding you." Red said, leading Green through the corridors.

"Well . . . I hate to admit this, but they were right."

"Heh. Oh yeah, do you feel better?" Red asked.

"Hm?"

"I heard that talking about what's wrong can help a lot." Red said, softly. "Did it help?"

Green thought for a second. Before, he had been crying his eyes out and had eventually calmed down as he was talking, and that hadn't actually registered until now. He guessed that talking to someone about what was wrong and all that was actually a good thing after all.

"Yeah, it did." He murmured, smiling a little. "I think it helped a lot . . ."

"Hey, Green?"

"Huh?"

"Do you think maybe . . . we could work on your fears? You know, like try to get rid of them or something?" Red offered.

Green sighed, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, maybe one day." He said. "Not right now though."

**OOOOOO**

Renny: The word count isn't as impressive as last time, but it's still big. Ish. About somewhere over 3900, maybe even 4000.

Green: Are you that fixated on word counts?

Renny: Yes, I am. Anyway, that thing with Green running away . . . That was sort of not planned, but I needed something for Daisy to be sad about, so . . . Green ran away for his first adventure, yay! Anyway, read, review and comment!


	10. Chapter 9- The academy

Renny: Red's POV now! And you all get to see what he thought of Green's little breakdown last chapter as well.

Green: What? No! Nononono NO!

Renny: Too bad, Eevee boy. Disclaimer!

Green: . . . Renny doesn't own pokemon . . .

Renny: On with the show!

**OOOOOO**

**-Anchor academy, BF2-**

As Red led Green back to where the others were waiting, he thought. He thought about what he'd just learnt about his rival, and what he'd seen the Eevee do. It was jumbled up. Red never expected anything like that, and it was making his head go into overdrive just thinking about it. Ok, focus, try to sort out the thoughts.

First of all. Green had been crying. Red never ever expected to see Green of all people, well pokemon now, cry, and as suddenly as that. But he had good reason for it, because of that dream he had. Crying was something Red expected that he would do, not Green, because Green was emotionally detached from almost everyone. Except for his family that is.

Second of all. Green hadn't gotten permission from his Grandfather to go on the journey in the first place. He had run away, because Oak wouldn't let him go for whatever reason. Red didn't think Green knew either. But the problem still stood. Green ran away, and only got permission, sort of, after the Lavender town thing.

Which brought Red to the last thing. Lavender town. The Gastley that had possessed Green as well. At first Red thought that Green had only been possessed, and he was fine after Red had saved him. But now Red had learnt that when you get possessed, you basically die. The only way Green had gotten back in was because Red forced the Gastley out of his body. That whole incident left Green with a fear of ghosts so bad that he couldn't be in the same room as them.

Red didn't understand it one bit.

"Hey, there they are!"

He glanced up and saw Kyoto waving at them with her single arm, grinning. He could see a slight flicker in her eyes as she looked at Green, probably worry.

"I found him." Red smiled. Better not let anyone else see that he was worried about what was going on in Green's head.

"What was wrong?" Dante asked.

"He's scared of ghost pokemon." Red explained. Green shot him a small glare, but Red shook his head. He wasn't going to say the rest of it.

"Ah, well . . . We'd better keep him away from Team Wallwalkers." Talon smiled.

"Wallwalkers?" Green blinked.

"A Team of ghost pokemon." Val said. She giggled. "Their leader's a Haunter who's a real nice guy. I heard that Terrie used to be on the Team at one time."

"A whole Team of ghosts?" Kyoto asked. "Wow. Are there many Teams with just one type or theme?"

"Well, not really." Talon yawned. "Just a few. Team Wallwalkers being one of them, of course."

"Of course." Green muttered.

"Anyway, we should explain the facility before we move from this floor." Dante spoke up. The group turned to him. "The floor above us, Basement Floor 1, connects all three of the entrances and exits to the stairs that lead to this floor, Basement Floor 2. Basement Floor 2 is used for teaching, and training. Basically, history of our world, the pokemon type web, and the training area."

"Don't we have the dojo for that?" Red asked.

"Yeah, but this place has its own personal one for pokemon from here, since the dojo up there is for the public!" Val cried, nodding up at the ceiling.

"Anyway," Dante continued. "Three members of Team Ice-Claw work on this floor. The first is Absol, no name. He teaches the pokemon type web and such. The second is Fel, a Persian, who trains pokemon here. The last one is Myst, a Ninetales who teaches the history of our world. All classes are optional and can be taken at any time during the day, just not in the middle of the night."

"So many Ninetales'." Red chuckled.

"If I see another one besides the ones in this town, I will skin them alive." Green said flatly.

"Ok, let's move on before we end up stopping the Eevee from killing something." Talon laughed.

The group moved down the stairs. These ones seemed longer than the others, but Red didn't really mind much.

"This place looks like an old mine." Green commented, looking at the walls. Only now Red just noticed there were some torches on them.

"That's because it used to be one!" Val called from in front. "This place used to mine for Shards!"

"What sort of shards?" Red asked her.

"Evolution Shards." Talon explained. "It's what pokemon have to use to actually get to evolve. Some need an item or two along with one, like you and Green do. This place . . . well, you'll learn from Myst about this stuff."

Eventually Team Sunrise reached the end of the stairs, and then stopped as soon as they got to a large room with no doors. The corridor they were in right now seemed to be the only one, and it looked straight from what Red could see.

"This floor, Basement Floor 3, is the place where most pokemon Teams come to have their food." Val grinned. Night nodded beside her, peering into the room in front of them. "Come on, we'll show you in!"

They walked in, and Red understood why the stairs were so long.

The ceiling was high, really high, and there were several perches, probably for pokemon who were fliers. The floor was covered in a grassy moss, which felt soft and nice to touch. There were a bunch of tables made from wood scattered around, and Red could see a counter with a door behind it in the far corner.

"This is the dining hall. That bit over there is where the pokemon get food from." Val told them, nodding to the counter. "The staff who work there are all mainly Chansey, but the head of them all is Blissey. They work hard, and I guess they get paid, but they seem to love the work they do!"

"Sounds cool to me." Kyoto smiled, already licking her lips.

"Right now it's about noon, so it's just been dinner time." Dante told them as they went out again. "Everyone who's here gets to come in for an evening snack as well, and they also have breakfast if they're here for it. So it's three meals a day!"

"Well, at least it's not just one tiny meal." Red muttered to Green, who nodded.

"Next, we'll take you to the floor under this." Talon said.

The stairs were much shorter this time, which Red was glad for. There seemed to be one room again, with no door, large as well. It was an almost replica of the dining hall, but it wasn't as high and didn't have anything inside it other than a couple of boards with papers stuck on them, on the opposite wall. Just before they walked in, Red saw the stairs leading to another floor, and a door just next to those.

"The one on the right is the Job Bulletin Board." Dante pointed a vine at the orange coloured one. "That's where Teams get the jobs that include things like retrieval, escorting, rescues, and so on. The other one is the Outlaw Notice Board."

This time the vine pointed at the red coloured one, which had papers with faces of different pokemon on.

"That's where the Teams go if they want to get an outlaw. A few of the jobs are wanted posters made by Lars, the law officer in this town, but most are from clients who had stuff stolen from them, or whatever." The Bulbasaur smiled a little. "We were told that new recruits aren't allowed to use that board until they've completed one job from the Job Bulletin Board when they first arrive."

"Wow." Kyoto breathed. "I've heard of stuff like that. Pokemon can send out messages from nearly anywhere, right?"

"Yep." Val nodded. "Only the Pelipper Post Office knows how the job requests work, so even if a pokemon gets stuck in a dungeon without any way out, they can somehow send a message to the Post Office, which then writes out the job, and then delivers it to whatever place. Not even Team Ice-Claw understands how it works, and they're close friends with one of the Pelipper who work there!"

"That sounds complicated." Green murmured.

"I'm glad I'm not a Pelipper." Red muttered.

"And that's basically it." Talon said, turning to them. "These four floors, Basement Floor 1, 2, 3 and 4, are the main ones for the Teams. All of the others are all the rooms for each of the Teams. The very last one is for Team Ice-Claw only. They get an entire floor to themselves, since they're the ones running this place."

"Where's our room?" Kyoto asked.

"Basement Floor 12." Dante said.

There was a collective groan from the newer members of Team Sunrise.

"Don't worry, we can take the elevator." Val grinned.

"You have an elevator?" Red gasped. "How does it work!?"

"Psychic power." Dante explained, walking out the room and going to the door that Red had seen before. "From what Irene told us yesterday, Xatu, no name, works the elevator about eighteen hours a day. The only time it's not working it when it's night, or in a lockdown."

"You have lockdowns?" Kyoto blinked.

"No one told us exactly what happens during one, but yeah." Talon nodded. "Irene said that one only happens when something really bad is going on in Anchor town above us, an emergency of sorts, and the training Teams aren't allowed to do anything to help, for safety reasons. We're not sure what sort of happenings make the lockdown happen, but I'm safe to say that I don't wanna know what does make it happen."

"Sounds a bit morbid." Red sighed. "No wonder this place is so secret . . ."

"It's secret because Irene doesn't want anyone randomly trying to mug the place." Dante muttered. "The floor above Team Ice-Claw's floor is the school's own personal storage room, so we never actually have to use the one in town. Other things, however, we have to go into town for."

"Well, that sucks." Red muttered.

"Oh, yeah, the elevator only works for Floors 5-14." Talon said, just as he pressed a button on the wall next to the door. "So don't try asking Xatu to take you to any others, because the tunnel for it isn't made that long, and he won't teleport you either."

The door opened by itself, sliding into the wall, and a Xatu with wide open eyes looked out at them from the elevator.

"Greetings, Team Sunrise." It said. "You would like to go to your floor, correct?"

"Yep!" Val grinned at it.

"He's blind." Talon whispered, as Val and Night dashed into the elevator next to the psychic bird. "But he can still see. The third psychic eye or something."

"I knew psychic types were cool, but I didn't think they'd be that awesome." Kyoto laughed. The group went into the elevator, and it started moving as soon as the door slid back into place.

"Thank you Kyoto." Xatu said.

"Uh, how does he-"

"I am psychic, I read your mind for your name." The blind bird told her.

"Oh, cool."

A few floors later, Team Sunrise was walking out of the elevator and into a large room with moss on the ground, much like the dining hall again, and some tables and perches scattered around. There were a lot of pokemon in the huge room, and Red could see doors, about three on each of the walls. He looked back at the elevator door, and saw two pairs of stairs, one going up and the other down, either side of it.

"This is Basement Floor 12." Dante said, nodding to the room. "Currently seven of the nine rooms here are in use. The room we're in right now is the common room, where the Teams who live here come out to talk to everyone else and maybe even battle, if they don't break the walls down or something, and just hang out after a day's work. Some even bring their food here, provided it's not hot or anything."

"Our room is the one closest to the elevator door, on the right." Talon pointed to the door in question. Red could see some more Footprint Runes on it, and cursed the fact that he couldn't read it. Not yet anyway.

"All the rooms look the same, but a few are personalised to suit the Teams needs or wants." Val said, walking up to the door. "Once the Team who live in the room graduate from the academy, they have to take any personalised items with them, or risk losing them forever. Of course they can still use facilities in the academy, including the storage room, but other than that, nothing is available to them."

"This place is getting better and better the more I hear about it." Red whispered to Green and Kyoto, who both nodded silently.

"We're lucky Team Wallwalkers are on Floor 10." Talon said, with a glance at Green. "But there is one ghost pokemon on this floor."

"Oh, great." Green sighed.

"He's called Abon, a Banette." Talon went on. "He's not actually that bad, we met him yesterday. One of the oldest pokemon in the room actually. You don't need to worry about him doing anything to you. He's nice and all that, so try not to eat him whenever you see him."

"No promises." Green muttered.

Talon shared a look with Val, Night and Dante, and then pushed open the door leading to their room. Once everyone was inside, he shut the door, but Red wasn't paying any attention to him anymore.

The room was . . . big. A lot bigger than what Red expected it to be. Somewhere around the same size as the room they had at the Infinity bar, but a bit bigger. There was a small water fountain which looked like a mini spring in the left hand corner, opposite the wall with the door. The floor was covered in the same soft moss they'd seen before on nearly every single floor, and there was a huge amount of hay in the corner, and a few hay beds scattered around already.

Hanging from the ceiling were some hammocks that looked like they were made from grass and leaves, but they looked sturdy. There were also a few perches, which were, again, probably for flying pokemon to sleep on or something.

"This is even better than where we slept before." Green mumbled. He didn't say anything else, but Red could tell he was happy from the way his eyes sparkled.

"I know, it shocked us when we came in as well!" Val laughed. "All of us thought we'd get some sort of crummy room with no space, but then Irene and Beta showed us this and we were all like, speechless!"

"It's a lot better than what we expected." Dante nodded. "And it's also fireproof, since we have at least three fire pokemon here."

"His tail is light though." Kyoto said, nodding to Talon's tail flame.

"Well, it is, but he means about fire attacks." Talon smiled. "Like Ember or Flamethrower or something."

"Ah."

"Anyway, we get to laze about today, as per Irene and Beta's instructions." Talon went on. "So, we can either stay in here or go out into the common room. Our own choice, really."

"I love this place." Red grinned.

"Thought you might." Dante nodded. "We'll leave the three of you to get comfortable. Meet us in the common room when you're done!"

The four pokemon walked out, leaving their new teammates in the room alone.

"I think . . . I think I'm glad you two got me into this." Green said. "I like this place . . . And I'm also glad it's nowhere near the cliff. Well, most of it isn't."

"I'm happy that I finally got in!" Kyoto cried, grinning. "Some of the pokemon I talked to outside this place told me it was amazing to live here, and now I get to do that myself!"

"I'm just happy we can actually do this." Red laughed. "Even though we're not on our own Team, this is the best thing ever!"

Soon enough, the three had chosen their beds. Red had chosen to just lay in some of the hay that he'd dragged out from the little hay pile in the corner, because he'd gotten used to it after a few days. Kyoto did the same, taking her bed next to his. Green chose a hammock that was above them, but not exactly on top of them, and with some help from Kyoto, he jumped onto it to test the vines holding it up.

"This is way more comfortable than the hay stuff." He said, with a small smile on his face.

"Heh, I'm happy with this." Red laughed, sitting on his own hay bed.

"We'd better get going." Kyoto said, standing up and offering her arm to Green. "Dante said to meet them in the common room when we're done, right?"

"Yep." Red nodded. He watched Green hop onto Kyoto's arm, and then the one-armed Combusken let him down onto the floor.

They walked out into the common room and saw their new Team talking with a floating doll that had a zipper for a mouth, and what looked like an extension of flat and plain skin.

"Banette." Green mumbled. He growled soon after, but it was quiet.

"Hey, calm down." Red whispered, as Kyoto dashed over to talk to the others. "Talon said he wasn't gonna hurt you, ok? Just try and stay calm."

"He may not hurt me, but he may have intentions to. All ghosts do." Green muttered.

"Just . . . try not to eat him when we go over, ok?"

"Twice in one day." Green said flatly. "I am facing what is possibly one of my worst fears, twice in the same day. I hate this world."

"Well, it's a world filled with pokemon." Red sighed. "You'd have to face a ghost sooner or later, you know."

"That doesn't mean I'll not complain." Green said.

Red rolled his eyes and walked towards the others. The Banette that Talon had called Abon looked up and did its own equivalent of smiling, the strange zipper mouth moving upwards.

"Hi there!" Red greeted it. "Uh, I'm Red, and this is Green. He's scared of ghosts, but I'll stop him if he tries to eat you."

**A lot of pokemon fear the Banette. **Abon said.

"Was that telepathy?" Green asked. It seemed his own curiosity was overriding his fears. Red smiled. Maybe there was a way for Green to get over fears?

**Yes. Banette do not have a mouth to communicate with, and the one we do have needs to be kept shut, least we lose our soul. **The Banette explained. **I am one of the lucky Banette who has mastered the art of telepathy and Psychic.**

"Sweet." Red smiled. "So, it's true about that whole 'open the zipper and the soul goes' thing?"

**That is correct, Lightning-Mouse. **Abon nodded.

"Most ghost pokemon can't use the telepathy method, let alone the Psychic one." Dante said, using his vines as a sort of hand-gesture thing. "Abon's kind of special since his Dad is a Gardevoir."

"Wait, that can help?" Kyoto blinked. "Wow, I thought it was just a myth!"

"What is?" Red frowned.

"The myth about pokemon getting different moves, traits and appearances from their Fathers and Mothers, depending on who the Father is." Talon told him. "Say for example . . . you have an Eevee. Its Mother is an Espeon, or some other evolution of an Eevee. Its Father is a Luxray, however. The Eevee then has lighter fur, and either red or dark crimson eyes, like a Luxray. It also gains the ability to use very few electric attacks, and can have some traits, like seeing through things, from the Luxray side."

"That's . . . pretty cool." Red murmured.

"Maybe we have that." Green said. "I mean, we are kinda . . . differently coloured."

"Might me." Red grinned. "Imagine the stuff I could do . . ."

"Trouble is, would it work?" Kyoto laughed. "Don't forget who you are."

"What do you mean?" Val asked, wagging her tails. "Are they from another town?"

"Uh, yeah!" Red nodded hastily. "We're from Kanto town. It's . . . somewhere. We got lost so . . . yeah."

"Do you miss your home?" Talon asked them.

"Not really." Red said, with a small glance at Green. Green nodded as well, though the look in his eyes was pained.

"If you say so."

**I believe that it is almost time for evening snacks? **Abon interrupted them. **We should be able to show the three new recruits how the dinner hall works around here.**

"Hey, good idea!" Val cried, with a quick look at Night, who nodded eagerly. Both pokemon dashed off to the elevator, leaving the others to follow.

"Hey, Abon?" Kyoto asked.

**Yes?**

"Which Team are you on?"

**Team Nestling. **The Banette said. **My leader is a rather small Skitty, but he is extremely powerful. He also happens to be one of the only Skitty to know Sucker Punch.**

"That's a strong move." Red heard Green mutter.

"It is?" Red blinked. "How?"

"Sucker Punch hits the opponent before they hit you, and if it does . . . wow, you do not wanna be hit by it." Kyoto shuddered, like she was reliving a memory or something. "I once saw a Raticate use it on a Gengar. The Gengar was taken out in a second . . ."

"Well, it is a dark move." Dante laughed. "So of course it would. But that still doesn't take away the sheer power in Sucker Punch. Too bad I can't learn it at all."

"That's a shame." Red smirked. "I bet your vines could hit anything with that move."

"Oh, laugh it up, but if I ever do learn it? You're the first one down." Dante smirked back.

Abon split them up again, his own weird smile planted on his ghost-doll face. Green nearly freaked out but managed to stay calm enough to look away and not stare at Abon. The elevator doors opened up, and Xatu took them to BF3.

**OOOOOO**

Renny: WOO, I DID IT! Ok. You've had the tour now! Of both the academy and Anchor town, sort of. There's still the beach, but why would I need to describe a beach? Meh.

Green: You're weird.

Renny: Uh-huh. Read, review and comment!


End file.
